Boss says last season was a great learning curve when it comes to letting points slip away.

David Artell believes that his Crewe Alexandra squad with a number of new recruits in key areas can see us ‘bridge that gap’ and reach the top six in League One. The Alex boss was only ‘satisfied’ with a top half finish last season and the campaign was tinged with disappointment at lost points that could have extended our season until the end of May.

Crewe missed out on a play-off spot by just eight points in the end and Artell is still haunted by dropped points against the likes of Gillingham, Sunderland, Ipswich, Swindon and Rochdale.

Artell told the club’s official website: “We are capable of bridging that gap. I genuinely believe we can. It will be difficult but the focus is firmly on making sure we get enough points to be challenging. We should have done it last season with the points we ended up dropping from good positions.

“That has to be a learning curve. The players have proved that they can compete at the level and now they all have an opportunity to improve again. That is the challenge. We all want to get better and improve on what we did last season.

“Why cannot we get into that top six and stay there? We never quite broke into it last season, although we got close and threatened to at times. That has to be the aim. That is my firm belief and it has to be the mindset going forward.”