The Crewe manager has taken the Railwaymen to the verge of promotion to League One since his appointment last November
The old club of Bruce Grobbelaar, David Platt and Danny Murphy has a day in the sun at Wembley on Sunday when Crewe Alexandra take on Cheltenham Town for a place in League One.
Dario Gradi, the alchemist who has transformed so many young players into top-line performers, is now upstairs again as director of football: the five consecutive defeats that started the season compounded by three more in November led to him making way for Steve Davis to become the manager.
Davis, a former Crewe and Burnley defender, guided Crewe through a semi-final against Southend United in order to qualify for today's play-off final, Chris Barker's 88th-minute strike delivering a 3-2 aggregate victory.
Crewe finished seventh, five points and one place behind Cheltenham. But Davis said: "It's a case of who copes best on the day, who controls their nerves and who plays the better football. There's no favourites. If anything they'd be, as they finished above us. But the fact that they won more games than us over the season doesn't count for anything now."
Davis can remind his players of the two 1-0 league wins during regular season – and an 8-1 home victory in April 2011 that stands as Cheltenham's worst result in 40 years – and he adds: "It's not a day out. It's not a holiday. We're still working towards our goal of promotion and we need to keep the lads' minds focused."
Expect Davis to line his side up in a 4-4-2 formation with the hope that Nick Powell can continue the form that has reportedly led to Manchester United having a £4m bid accepted, with Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal also showing interest. The 18-year-old attacking midfielder returned an impressive 14 goals in 33 league starts, though Davis denies that Sir Alex Ferguson has sealed any deal. "At the moment it's just speculation," he said. "There has been no solid offer from anybody. Nothing will be happening until Sunday's out of the way. Maybe next week we'll know a little bit more."
Regarding how Cheltenham – who beat Torquay 4-1 in their semi-final – might line up, Davis added: "I think Mark [Yates, the manager] will play the team which beat Torquay in the second leg when he had the two pacy wingers on [James McGlashan and Kaid Mohamed]. Both of them are dangerous on their day, but they've got other good footballers in the middle of the park too, like Marlon Pack, although not necessarily athletic ones. They also have two experienced centre-halves in Steve Elliott and Alan Bennett, who while not particularly mobile do an excellent job for them." Read More
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