Captain David Artell believes Crewe's team spirit could prove to be a decisive factor in their play-off final against Cheltenham on Sunday.
Alex have taken their phenomenal late-season form into the play-offs and semi-final success against Southend moved a club-record unbeaten run to 18 matches. A youthful and largely homegrown team, boasting the stand-out talents of sought-after England Under-18 international Nick Powell in attack, now head to Wembley as favourites in the eyes of many observers.
Despite finishing five points behind Cheltenham in seventh when the regular season closed, the Railwaymen picked up a pair of 1-0 wins against their opponents - the latter of which served as the only blot on the Robins' own impressive streak of five wins in six outings.
Artell, who scored the winner in that game and is set to lead his team-mates out at the national stadium despite nursing a broken metatarsal, insists the togetherness underpinning Crewe's extended purple patch is a far cry from the environment he encountered upon moving to Gresty Road from Morecambe in summer 2010.
"It gives us an edge, without a shadow of a doubt," he said. "When I first came here and walked in that dressing room it was like a morgue. I've come from some fantastic ones. Rotherham's dressing room was unbelievable. And it's the same dressing room in there now, with that unity.
"Obviously it helps that they've grown up together. We've been on a few bonding sessions to Chester racecourse and things like that and it's worth points. When things are getting tough it transfers onto the pitch."
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