Davis in Alex dreamland

Steve Davis admits his Crewe side's march to the League Two play-off final has taken him by surprise.

Davis succeeded long-serving boss Dario Gradi in November with Alex 18th in the table and presided over a 4-1 FA Cup reverse against Colchester in his first game at the helm, but insists encouraging signs were there at the outset. "No, I didn't imagine it would lead to this," said Davis ahead of Sunday's Wembley showdown with Cheltenham. "I hoped that it would, but you never know how the players are going to take to a new manager and respond to new ideas. "Even in the cup game against Colchester, for those first 20 minutes you could see a different group. We were unfortunate in that game, we had a man sent off, but we put that right in the next league game against Morecambe with a fantastic win and it's gone from there. "We've lost four in 31 games, which is a phenomenal percentage of wins and draws, and are 18 games unbeaten. We need to go 19 to do it. "When I was talking about breaking the club record of 14 games that was a massive ask, but to be within on game of reaching 19, I wouldn't have dreamt of that at the time. The players have done magnificently well and all credit to them."