Luke Offord was pleased that Crewe Alexandra could demonstrate the other side of the game against Shrewsbury last weekend and the defender says it will be important to take that resilience into our forthcoming matches starting at Cambridge this weekend.

The Alex defender helped the club achieve a clean-sheet against Steve Cotterill’s Shrews and Offord wants us to take that defensive confidence into another tough game against mid-table Cambridge.

Offord told the club’s official website: “We worked hard and grafted for each other to get that clean-sheet and a point against Shrewsbury. It could prove to be a good point in the end and if we didn’t win the game then it was important not to lose it and we managed that.

“The gaffer and Kenny (Lunt) have been on to us about keep more clean-sheets, so it was nice to get one last weekend. We didn’t defend well enough at Burton, so we have to become more consistent and be on it from now until the end of the season.

He added: “We have a big half of the season coming up and we want to get some wins to get out of the bottom four and start pushing up the table.”