Marcus Braddock looks ahead to Town's Checkatrade Trophy game against Crewe
Tonight we play Crewe Alexandra in what could be the deciding game in the group section of the Checkatrade Trophy. The group leaders Manchester City U21 are already through to the next round but our second place is under threat if Crewe win tonight. Crewe sit in third place with three points to our five so an away win is all we need to qualify but Crewe will certainly be motivated to push us all of the way.
In League Two, David Artells team are going through a difficult patch of form with three consecutive defeats and sit dangerously close to the drop zone in 18th place. In addition to their results they've not scored in their last three games although they have scored more than the teams around them at home with 13 from 8 games so far at Gresty Road.
Their results so far in this competition have seen them beat Tranmere 4-3 away but their home game against Manchester City under 21 ended in a 4-1 defeat.
With everything that's happened over the last 24 hours it's nice to see us back in action so soon. It's a difficult one to call with Crewe needing the win to go through but we are a division above so we should have a little more quality but that will count for nothing if the home team is well motivated.
Squad News
Neither team have any new injuries to worry about. Alex striker Chris Porter was substituted with a swollen knee at the weekend but was scheduled to train yesterday. Town are still missing Shaun Whalley who is still out with a calf injury