Johnstone's Paint Trophy: Crewe win place in northern final

Crewe boss Steve Davis admitted that he is just "excited to be there" after his side booked a place in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy northern final.

Tuesday night's 4-1 win over League Cup semi-finalists Bradford City has set up a two-leg final against Coventry City.

And Davis admitted: "No matter who we play, we're just excited to be there.

"I wanted an FA Cup run but, while that wasn't to be, I've always wanted to to do well in this competition. It's an opportunity to get to Wembley."

The Alex have only reached the Football League Trophy regional final once before, in 2007, when they lost to eventual winners Doncaster Rovers - and the early indications at Gresty Road were that they would miss out again.

A week on from their 3-1 Capital One Cup semi-final first-leg win over Premier League giants Aston Villa, Bradford looked on course for another higher division scalp when Kyel Reid put the League Two side ahead.

But Nathan Doyle's own goal levelled the tie on the stroke of half-time before League One Crewe won it with three strikes in the final quarter hour from Max Clayton, Brad Inman and Chuks Aneke.

"I wasn't that pleased with our performance," Davis told BBC Stoke. "Bradford were tough opposition. You can see the confidence and momentum that their League Cup run has given them.

"But the last 15 minutes must have warmed a few of the fans up."

Crewe's late burst of goals booked next month's two-leg meeting with Coventry, who showed some late heroics of their own at the Ricoh last Thursday night with two injury-time goals to see off Preston North End 3-2.

It also means three games between the two sides in the space of 18 days as they are also scheduled to meet in the league at the Ricoh on 23 February.

"I'm looking forward to the two ties with Coventry," added Davis. "We play them in the league too, so that's three meetings very close together.

"But the league is our priority. We can forget about the JPT for a while and concentrate on Saturday's game with Mk Dons and trying to bridge that gap on the teams in the play-off zone."