David Artell has told the club’s official website that if someone had said to him that we would remain unbeaten after fixtures against promotion chasing Accrington Stanley, Sunderland and away at Blackpool, he would have accepted it.

Crewe have been unfortunate not to have collated more than the five points we have from those fixtures and coupled with an undeserved defeat at Swindon Town, saw the Alex lose ground in the race for the play-offs. Artell has been pleased with the response following that injury-time defeat at the County Ground.

Artell has told the club’s official website: “We have a few bumps and bruises that comes with playing Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday but we will give them time to rest and recuperate.

“We are going through a touch period of fixtures, really tough. They are coming thick and fast. If someone had said that we would remain unbeaten from games against Accrington, Sunderland and away at Blackpool I would have accepted it.

“Of course, we want to win games and have to start turning those draws into wins but we know there are no easy games in this league.

He added: “We are where we are and we have another tough away at Lincoln this weekend, who are another team right up there as well.”