Steve Davis: Majority of Crewe Alexandra fans 'understand', says manager

Steve Davis has been manager of Crewe Alexandra since succeeding Dario Gradi in November 2011

Crewe Alexandra manager Steve Davis says that the vast majority of the club's fans accept he has 'one of the toughest jobs in the Football League'.

Davis will appear at a Fans Forum at Gresty Road on Thursday evening and expects a proportion of those attending to be angry about relegation.

"They can take their anger out on me if that's what they want to do, as they've done at times this season," said Davis.

"But I've spoken to a lot since we got relegated and there's real support."

The long-serving Davis told BBC Radio Stoke: "It's one of the toughest jobs in the Football League and it's not going to get easier.

"Most of the fans - probably 80 per cent - know that. They're very proud of our academy and what it brings us.

"They understand we work on a very low budget and that there are going to be seasons in which we struggle. But we have to remain optimistic. We still have some good players here."

'The buck stops at me'

The Alex were relegated back to League Two with a month of the season still to go, having won just six League One games this season.

"I accept that the buck stops at me," added Davis. "There has to be ambition and I accept that I have not been able to get the results to keep us up, but there has to be a certain amount of realism.

"A few who aren't going to understand are angry and want answers. Maybe some of them don't want come and sit in a forum and listen as they don't want to hear it.

"But at the last forum I did, I had 19-year-old kids who came up to me afterwards, shook my hand and said that they'd never realised what we had to deal with and how they didn't understand before."