DAVE Artell says he is glad of the support of the Crewe Alex board as he admits his managerial reign would have been ended at "most other clubs".

The Alex boss has had to grapple with a season of transition after the departure of key players, while the unscheduled retirements from the game of two of his summer recruits, Tommie Hoban and Shaun McDonald, hit his preparations for the campaign.

Crewe were languishing at the bottom of the table with the gap to safety widening before recent improvements have seen them compile two wins from the last four with home successes over Gillingham and, on Tuesday night, Lincoln City.

The Railwaymen are now just four points off fifth-bottom Morecambe and Artell says he can envisage the good run continuing to move the club into mid-table ahead of Saturday's tasty visit of Sheffield Wednesday (K.O 3pm).

But whatever happens he is grateful of the backing from Crewe's relatively-new board, which was assembled after the buy-out of former majority shareholder Norman Hassall in February 2020.

Now headed by Chairman Charles Grant it includes a supporter representative, Mark Beavan, from the Railwaymen Supporters Society.

"The truth is at any other club I'd have been sacked," admitted Artell. "I'm not naive enough to not think that, but at the same time most other clubs have not sold their best five players in the last six months.

"You'd like to think if you are doing your bit for the club, the board will do its bit for you.

"I've never questioned the chairman's integrity and he's never questioned mine. All the board are good, honest people. When you're open, honest and truthful and you are all on the same page with good lines of communication any issue or any ambiguity gets ironed out quite quickly.

"If I've got a problem or an issue I'm not quite sure about I'm going to ask the question because it's important that you speak honestly and openly about any issues or problems."

The Crewe manager says he is also indebted for the patience shown by Alex fans who have watched the heights scaled last season followed by this term's trough.

"The fans don't put pressure on the board and they deserve huge credit. At most other clubs they would have been calling for my head, at which point most chairmen and boards would go 'let's get the heat off us by sacking him'," said Artell.

"At this club all the fans understand where we are at regarding the cycles and processes we have to go through. And I hope they thoroughly enjoyed watching the eight Academy lads playing on Tuesday night.

"That is what we are trying to do and yes we have had a sticky three or four months. But we are trying to maintain the business model and the philosophy of the club and it's not easy as it does need time.

"Results are always an indicator as we're in a results industry, but you can't throw the baby out with the bath water if things aren't going your way straight away after a real good spell for the football club over the last two-and-a-half years."

And Artell pointed out: "We knew 12 to 18 months ago that this period was coming as we had developed players who were on the right track to go on - and we're doing that again.

"I am grateful to still be sat here, there's no question of that. But I also hope the board are grateful for the job I'm doing. The players deserve credit and they're coming out of it slowly.

"We're putting them building blocks back in place."

Artell is hopeful Chris Porter will be available for the Wednesday encounter. The veteran striker pulled out of the midweek game after suffering an ankle injury in the warm-up.

But fellow striker Chris Long is set to miss out for the second game running after rolling his ankle in training. Scott Kashket is unlikely to be fit to return too.

Of the game, Artell said: "Sheffield Wednesday is a huge club and we've got to make sure we are not overawed by that.

"We've won three out of the last six (including cup win) and that's not the form of a team that is second from bottom. If we continue with that form we will be in mid table in no time. We know that we're on the right track."