Crewe Alexandra: Steve Davis tells his players to either stand and fight or go

Steve Davis' Crewe have won just once in League One since 28 November

Crewe Alexandra manager Steve Davis says any players who are not prepared to battle to keep their side in League One can leave, reports BBC Radio Stoke.

The Alex remain bottom of the table, now 12 points adrift of safety with six matches left, following Saturday's 3-0 loss at Peterborough - their fifth straight defeat.

And Davis admits some players have begun to "throw in the towel".

"We want people who are prepared to fight for the shirt," he said.

"If they're not, they can go. The one thing I want them to do is fight and for the first time this season there was a lack of that.

"Players were being allowed to run through unchallenged, and they were not winning their tackles. It's the first time I've seen some of them throw in the towel.

"We saw the first signs of that from quite a few of them, and that will never happen while I'm here."

Still a mathematical chance of survival

Crewe's survival hopes have hinged for a while on the fact that they remain in their own hands, with their final four matches all against the four sides immediately above them.

But that would count for nothing if they fail to get anything from their next two matches, away to local rivals Port Vale and at home to Scunthorpe.

"Mathematically, we've still got a chance," added Davis. "But it's going to take a hell of a turn round on performance as what we did at Peterborough was not good enough.

"There are not many playing anywhere near to their potential."

Davis took the Alex up to League Two via the play-offs in 2012 - just six months after taking over when Dario Gradi retired as manager for the third and final time.