After the battle at Yeovil, to fightback yet again from conceding an early goal, Rovers face one of the five teams sitting below them in League One.

Crewe Alexandra struggled since their relegation from the Championship at the end of the 2005/06 season and this season has started in the same vein.

It took the Railwaymen three league games to record their first victory and another three to record their second three-point haul; they have lost the other four games. Their latest league game was a 4-3 defeat at home to Southend. After that match Crewe manager Steve Holland blamed "suicidal" defending for the loss.

"To end up losing the game [after leading 3-2] is annoying, the goal that has cost us the points at the end is suicide. The first thing you teach an under-eight is if you're the last defender, you don't try to beat the opposing centre-forward. If you do that at this level, there's only one consequence."

Looking back at the history of this week's opposition, Crewe Alexandra was formed in 1877 as Crewe Football Club, they were one of the founding members of Division 2 in 1892, having previously been members of the Football Alliance, but became a non-league side after only five seasons. The following year the club managed to sign all their players as professionals.

They rejoined the Football League in the 1920s. 1955 saw Crewe embark on a sequence where they did not win away from home for 56 matches. The dismal run ended with a 1-0 win at Southport.

1961 saw Crewe's most notable win in their history; Jimmy McGuigan's side defeated Chelsea 2-1 in the FA Cup at Stamford Bridge. That particular Chelsea side contained former Crewe player Frank Blunstone, Jimmy Greaves, Peter Bonetti and Terry Venables. Billy Stark and Barrie Wheatley scored the Crewe goals.

In 1963, Crewe gained promotion for the first time in their history with a 1-0 win over Exeter City. Frank Lord became the local hero, scoring the only goal in front a crowd of 9,807. Lord also holds the record for most hat-tricks for the club - he amassed eight hat-tricks during his time at Gresty Road.

The period from the 1950s to the early 1980s was generally not a successful time for the Alex. In June 1983, Crewe appointed Milan-born Dario Gradi as manager. At that time, Crewe had again just avoided being voted out of the Football League. Gradi quickly gained a reputation for developing young talent. Gradi's efforts paid off in 1989 when Crewe won promotion to the Third Division.

They went back down two years later, but were promoted again in 1994. Gradi then led his charges to the unprecedented height of Division One in 1997, after victory over Brentford in the Division Two playoff final, and kept his team there until 2002, despite a club income on which many more lowly clubs could not survive.

After one season in the Division Two the club were promoted back to Division One at the end of the 2002-03 season, having finished in second place; the first time the club had finished in the top two of any division. Although managing to retain their place in the renamed Championship in the 2003-04 season. Despite a good run towards the end of the season, they were relegated to League 1 at the end of the 2005-06 season.

Players who passed through the ranks at Crewe include the England international players Geoff Thomas, David Platt and Rob Jones, Welshman Robbie Savage, and Northern Ireland internationals Neil Lennon and Steve Jones (Platt was the most successful, totalling more than £20 million in transfers and captaining the England team).

All these were youngsters signed from other clubs, but Gradi also had considerable success in nurturing Crewe's own trainees - notably full England internationals Danny Murphy and Seth Johnson, under-21 England international Dean Ashton and Wales international David Vaughan.

On 20 April 2007, Crewe Alexandra announced that, as of 1 July 2007, Gradi would take up a new role as the club's Technical Director whilst gradually allowing newly appointed first-team coach Steve Holland control of the team.

For teams which have spent much of their time in the lower region of the league is perhaps surprising that Rovers and Crewe have met just 19 times in total, The fact that Crewe are a 'Northern' team and Rovers a 'Southern' team explains why they have met so infrequently.

The first meeting between the clubs took place as recently as the 1963-64 season; the Railwaymen won both games that season, 2-1 at Eastville and 4-1 at Gresty Road. The following season Rovers failed even worse in Cheshire coming back with a 6-1 thrashing, however they did win the home game 1-0.

Since then the games have been tight; on only two occasions, have there been more than two goals between the teams. Since that 6-1 thrashing no team has scored more than 2 goals in this fixture. Last season both games were drawn 1-1. In the 19 games Alex have won 8 and Rovers just 4.

In mid-week, Alex paid a Coca Cola Cup tie at Anfield and almost took the game into Extra Time. Daniel Agger put Liverpool ahead when he drove in a free-kick awarded for Michael O'Connor's foul on David Ngog.

O'Connor atoned for his foul as he shot home from close range after keeper Diego Cavalieri parried Calvin Zola's header from a Billy Jones corner. However, Leiva timed a run to perfection to meet a Jermaine Pennant cross and headed in to wrap up a Reds win.

Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez introduced Fernando Torres after Lucas' goal and the striker was immediately involved. Pennant had been constant menace for Liverpool down the right flank and he crossed for Torres, whose header was tipped past the post by Steve Collis.

The Crewe keeper saved again from the Spaniard two minutes later after Torres had broken clear of the Crewe defence. Liverpool were given a late scare when Tom Pope slid in to meet a low cross but put his effort wide.

There is little doubt that this game will be a tight one, but Rovers will need to do much better than their last home performance, when they went down to Walsall 3-1. More of the fighting spirit shown in the game at Yeovil and a tighter defensive display should provide a much-needed 3 points.

Written by Gerry Prewett