DAVE Artell says he has left Charlie Kirk out of Crewe's last two games as a precautionary measure.

Kirk has been an unused sub against Shrewsbury and Peterborough after tweaking his hamstring and Alex boss says he is mindful of the impact similar injuries have had on his squad, including summer signing Donervon Daniels, who has been sidelined since October with serious muscle tear.

Artell is hopeful that Kirk will be in a position to start Saturday's visit from Portsmouth, but he warned: "We'll see how Charlie is this week. We've had three long-term hamstring injuries this year and we don't want another so we are making sure Charlie is 100 per cent all right before he steps onto a football pitch."

The manager is pleased to have a week without the burden of a midweek fixture to prepare for the clash with Pompey who beat Crewe 4-1 at Fratton Park in the reverse fixture three months ago.

Artell recalled: "Goals change games and we gave them the first two down there. We know that if we make mistakes we are going to be in trouble in this league. We have got to make sure we are mistake free.

"But we will give as good as we've got and make sure we improve.

"The only downside to the game is that the fans aren't here as Portsmouth would have brought 2,000 fans."

Artell says he is aware goals have been in short supply in recent games, as they were at the start of the campaign.

But he pointed out: "We've played Peterborough and we've got Portsmouth, Sunderland and Accrington, who are in the play-offs, Doncaster and Lincoln (to play this month). These teams, with the exception of Accrington and no disrespect to them, are huge teams so we have got to have a sense of reality and perspective about it.

"We have got to make sure we perform against these teams. We only scored a few times early in the season when we were finding our feet and we've got to make sure we do again. We don't want to become stale or easy to play against.

"We've got to work at it and become better."

Meanwhile, Blackburn-bound Harry Pickering wants to maintain exacting standards during his captaincy before he leaves the club.

The left-back, who has been loaned back to Crewe after completing a deadline-day move to the Championship outfit, has taken over the captain's armband from the departed Perry Ng.

Last Saturday's defeat at Peterborough was the first during his reign, but Pickering said: "Hopefully we can get another run going.

"The season hasn't gone too bad, but I think we could have done better at the start of the season. We've got to keep going and keep working hard.

"I just thought it (the armband) would be mine when Perry was out, but now he's moved on.

"It's a bit strange when people say you're on loan at Crewe, but I just feel the same as I've been here since I was in the under-11s.

"I'm made up that the move went through and I'm looking forward to next season."

• Billy Sass-Davies has joined National League side Yeovil on a one-month loan deal to get some games under his belt.

The Welsh youth international, 20, spent time on loan at Altrincham in November, but hasn't featured for Crewe in League One this season with the centre-half seeing his last action when he started against Hull in the Papa Johns' Trophy on December 8.