Crewe Alexandra have double cause for celebration as the club prepares for its return to Division One, at the first time of asking. As well as picking up the first ever Nationwide Division Two runners-up trophy the Alex will be able to hang on to a gong that has been an almost permanent fixture in the old cabinet.
The Bobby Moore Fair Play Award has been retained by Crewe after they were awarded the trophy as the cleanest team IN ALL FOUR ENGLISH DIVISIONS and it is the seventh time Crewe have been THE cleanest team in the country, Plymouth and Hartlepool were joint second and Manchester United 4th.
Confirmation of the award was given in a letter to the club from PFA chief executive Gordon Taylor and it celebrates an incredible record of discipline by the Railwaymen, whose receipt of the award is in stark contrast to the reliability demonstrated by the industry that the club's nickname carries.
In a successful promotion campaign during which Crewe racked up notable club records for points gained, away games won and clean sheets kept, all that was achieved with just three players being sent off. The 'guilty' men were all central defenders, Effe Sodje, the Nigerian World Cup star, Richard Walker and Stephen Foster and it was their dismissals that led to Crewe defeats against Wigan Athletic and Oldham Athletic.
For the vast majority of the campaign discipline was at its usual high level for the Cheshire side and most of the red cards, in games involving Crewe, were brandished to the opposing teams. Another amazing statistic is that only Rob Hulse was suspended during the campaign for amassing five bookings.
Crewe are renowned for the production line of young talent that has seen the likes of David Platt, Rob Jones, Seth Johnson and Danny Murphy, plus internationals such as Robbie Savage and Neil Lennon, emerge from Gresty Road and take huge strides onwards to top flight stardom.
But the fantastic disciplinary record, meritorious as it is, also has a residual effect, on the field, in terms of success. Dario Gradi, the longest-serving manager in the entire country, said of the latest acknowledgement of his club's on-field discipline.
"We've been on about discipline all year. You have to keep all the players on the pitch in the important games and we have managed to do so more than the opposition this season."
That was certainly a factor in the middle part of the season where the loss of points, in those games where Alex players received red cards, almost tipped Crewe off the rails as the team sought automatic promotion. But the team rallied and despite the difficulties, the runner-up slot behind Wigan was snatched despite the close attentions of the likes of Cardiff, Oldham and Bristol City.
Everyone involved in football knows that Dario Gradi is a top coach, who produces talent after talent, but how does he coach such discipline and how come his young charges, and some not so young, carry out his edict on the park?
Well, as I can claim to have covered Crewe for almost as long as Dario has been the manager, I think I can answer that one, especially as I asked him that exact question just last year.
His answer was: "Players come through the ranks at Crewe and from a very young age we teach them good habits and those good habits are reinforced as they progress through our system and on into the first team."
Dario went on to add: "We have always raised our kids to play the game the right way. If they step out of line as a young Academy player we will substitute them right away. That immediately tells them we will not tolerate the type of behaviour that could result in us losing a player."
You can't argue with that and as Crewe prepare for their Division One return, for what is Dario's 20th season in charge, they can do so with a record that only they have any chance of changing. That record being winners of the Fair Play Award for the EIGHTH time in ten seasons.
Bobby Moore would surely approve.
