David Artell has told the club’s official website that he is ‘pleased that it is now February’. The Alex boss acted swiftly to bring in defender Michael Nottingham and forward Stephen Walker in on loan and possibly more importantly we did not see any departures.

The only player to depart was centre-half Christian Mbulu, mainly because he had more chances of first team football at Morecambe.

The Alex boss told the club’s official website:  “I am glad it is February. January can be a hectic month and it is nice when things settle down again.

“I am surprised that we didn’t have a bid for one of our players but I will take that. Thanks very much. It gives us the best chance of fulfilling our ambition of winning promotion.

“With my manager’s hat on that’s great but in terms of the club’s plan to sell players, we will have to see what happens at the end of the season. Some of them have had really consistent seasons, two seasons, and I am surprised that we did not have one bid but we didn’t have to sell anyone and that puts us in a better position.”