CREWE Alexandra boss Steve Davies is seeking to attract the right characters to the club and help them stave off relegation, writes Jamie Davies.

The Railwaymen are rock bottom in League One after a humiliating 5-0 home defeat against Coventry City.

And they have lost midfielder Adam King, who has headed back to Premier League club Swansea City after finishing his six-month spell at the Alex.

Davis was hoping to keep hold of the 20-year-old but the Swans decided to take King back to South Wales.

King made 26 appearances and provided five goals during his stay.

The Alex boss has had talks with fellow loan players Ryan Lowe and Semi Ajayi but does have back-up plans in place.

Davis said: “If we could tie them again then great but we have other possibilities in mind if we can’t do it.

“I would have to get the right character. Some players won’t be prepared to come here and join in a relegation scrap. You have to attract that right person and we know we are in a relegation fight, so it has to be right for us.”

Alex are now six points off safety but have this weekend off due to the third round of the FA Cup taking place after they were knocked out by Eastleigh in the opening stages.

Davis feels mistakes shown against Coventry City gave the game away.

A hat-trick from Adam Armstrong and a double by Jacob Murphy helped the visitors leave a disastrous start to 2016 for the south Cheshire club.

Davis received mixed emotions from home supporters on Saturday but will be on the case to solve the team’s problems.

He said: “We have analysed the game with the players and they know that their individual errors were severely punished.

“Coventry were very clinical in their finishing after we made those mistakes.

"It was like a mistake, pass, goal and we couldn’t afford to gift them opportunities like that.

“That was the major difference. We gifted them goals and got punished.

"We did it four times in the first half and it was all over.”

Crewe had a more positive performance in the second half as they created some convincing chances.

Davis added: “If you analyse the game, we created some really good openings and had good chances ourselves.

"We didn’t capitalise on that and they did.

“We made a mistake for the first goal but had chances when Marcus (Haber) should have done better with a header and James Jones fired over the bar.

“Ryan (Lowe) had a shot saved by the goalkeeper in a one-on-one and Jonah went one-on-one in the second half as well.

“So it could have gone 1-1, 2-1 or 2-2 but it didn’t and that is where we have to be more clinical and stay in the game. We managed to do that away at Coventry and were unlucky not to get a point but we couldn’t manage to do that at the weekend.”