After an impressive win at home to Swindon, Town are on their travels this weekend as they head to Crewe looking to post back to back victories to open the 2022/23 season.
With Crewe having being relegated at the end of the 2021/22 season the fixture will mark the first time that the two sides have faced off against each other.Fixture Information
And Town will face a Railwaymen side full of confidence themselves after they earned maximum points from their 2-1 opening day win at Rochdale.
Our opponents
Crewe finished rock bottom of League One last season, with seven wins all season and relegation ending their three-year stay in League One.
Despite the drop into the bottom tier and releasing a dozen players from the squad, they chose not to make wholesale additions, bringing in Cheltenham duo Conor Thomas and Charlie Colkett, Carlisle pair Rod McDonald and Kelvin Mellor as well as Courtney Baker-Richardson from Newport County.
The permanent signings were supplemented by loan moves for Lachlan Brook and Khanya Leshabela until January and Arthur Okonkwo until the end of the season, with all players arriving from Premier League clubs.
The man in charge
Alex Morris is the man in at the helm at The Mornflake Stadium, having being appointed as David Artell's successor towards the end of the 2021/22 season.
Morris is a familiar face at the club having come through the Academy ranks before injury cut short his playing ambitions.
After attaining his coaching qualifications he moved into the Academy set up before progressing to the first-team under Artell before initially taking temporary charge over the final weeks of the 2021/22 season after relegation was confirmed.
Ones to watch
The experienced Rod McDonald will be heavily relied upon for his defensive solidarity whilst Conor Thomas impressed on debut last weekend.
As ever with Crewe, there is plenty of focus on youth with the likes of much-touted prospect Zac Williams, Tariq Ukwakwe and loanees Lachlan Brook and Arthur Okonkwo all aged twenty-two or under.
History
The club was formed back in 1877, reaching the FA Cup semi-finals in 1888 and became a founding member of the Football League Second Division in 1892.
They were then invited to join the new Third Division North in 1921, where they would remain for almost four decades, then being placed in the new Fourth Division before finally earning a promotion in 1962/63.
Relegation was swift however and the club spent the next two decades in the lower reaches of the league before a change in fortunes under Dario Gradi, who oversaw the club for over 20 years, leading Alex to promotion to the third tier before reaching the second tier in 1997, where they stayed for eight of the next nine seasons.
During Gradi's time in charge the club saw the likes of David Platt, Neil Lennon, Rob Jones, Craig Hignett and Dean Ashton all make moves to top-flight clubs.
The club fell though would fall back down the divisions, dropping to the bottom division in 2009, before subsequently bouncing between League One and League Two with last season ending in their relegation.
Team news
Simon Weaver remains without defenders Rory McArdle and Will Smith as well as Josh Falkingham and Max Wright as they continue their recovery from injuries that saw them miss the start of the season.