Next up: Birmingham City

Alex McLeish is expected to bring a strong squad to South Cheshire.

Much has been made of Crewe`s pre-season schedule and the fact we are playing against Premiership opposition just days before the season opener against Dagenham & Redbridge at the Alexandra Stadium next Saturday.

It has been a weird set of fixtures which have seen the Railwaymen not play a game on any of the pre-season Saturday`s and had no game on the penultimate weekend before the season starts.

Anyway, results haven`t been too bad, just the one defeat and that was a narrow one to Wolves last Thursday but the direct way of playing and the weird formation has baffled some of the Alex faithful.

The Alex gaffa has adopted a unusual 4-2-2-1-1 formation and it has had mixed reviews, so this match against decent opposition should give us further evidence of whether this formation will be viable to play in league two.

With just three additions to the squad their has been rumblings of discontent and does leave the squad with a threadbare feel about it, especially as football league rules now permit seven subs in the match-day squad.

Patrick Ada and Mat Mitchell-King have joined from Blue Square Premier Side Histon and both look decent acquisitions but Mitchell-King has been deployed in a holding midfield role so far and given our limited options in defence that is a surprise.

England U20 keeper David Button has joined on loan from Spurs, and has been installed as number one, with Adam Legdzins and Steve Collis fighting it out for a place on the bench which is likely to be filled by plethora of young professionals.

This week is critical, this is the time for fine tuning, yet it feels like we are well off the pace in terms of being prepared for the season but hopefully when Saturday comes we will be ready for the big kick off.