Alex Morris says Crewe Alexandra are intent on breaking the curse of the returning player when Gillingham visit on Saturday (3pm).

Mika Mandron and Scott Kashket, who both left The Railwaymen in the summer, have been leading the line for Neil Harris’s side of late.

Mandron, who scored 24 goals in two seasons for Crewe, has bagged twice for The Gills this term. Kashket, who only managed one in an injury-hit year in South Cheshire, has got one for his new club.

Morris said: “We want to avoid that curse of ex-players coming back to clubs and scoring goals.

“Those two play up front together. We’ll welcome those two boys back; they were both great around the training ground. It’ll be nice to see them but we hope they go home empty-handed and disappointed.”

He added: “We’ve got to try to win this game because this type of fixture – any fixture at home – is a chance to get three points on the board.

“Draws just lead to you being static, we want wins so we can get into the area of the table we need to be in. 

“I’d hope (Gillingham) won’t cause us too many surprises in the way that they play because they are pretty settled in a 4-4-2.”