Crewe must enjoy pressure of new season - Demetriou

Crewe Alexandra captain Mickey Demetriou says he will use his experience of winning promotion to help the younger members of the squad "enjoy the pressure" of being part of another shot at the play-offs next season.

The 36-year-old defender clocked up his 100th league appearance for the Railwaymen in January since joining from Newport County nearly three years ago.

He featured 38 times as the Alex saw their challenge for a top-seven spot fade over the last six games as they finished 11 points outside the play-offs.

"It was tough - mainly mentally over physically probably because we want it so much and then obviously the odd game didn't go our way and it hurts a lot and I think you could see that towards the end," Demetriou told BBC Radio Stoke.

"I think the boys were struggling to just keep everything together trying to give everything we can out on the pitch, like we always do.

"The season could have turned out completely different - there's maybe five or six games in there that if they went a different way we'd still be playing football."

A veteran of more than 600 games in his career, Demetriou, who is staying at Crewe for at least another season, said he takes his role as captain and mentor seriously and is always keen to help the younger members of the squad.

"You never stop learning football. I think you always find different ways to handle things, whether that's out on the pitch, or off the pitch mentally or physically," he said.

"Obviously, I'm a little bit older than some of the lads, so I do things differently anyway. My role in that dressing room is to make sure that the younger lads are OK, to keep everyone level and concentrating on that next game.

"I'm the captain but we've got a lot of leaders in the changing room. I think there's five of us that hit over 100 games [for Crewe] last season so they've got to now step into the lads that haven't made that many games."

Demetriou won promotion with Shrewsbury Town in 2014-15 and was part of the Alex side that lost the League Two play-off final in 2024.

He said he will try to impart that knowledge to his team-mates as best he can as they prepare for the new campaign in August.

"I've earned that promotion. So I know what it takes and it's just for me to try to share those experiences to say 'this is what we've got to do'.

"I've been in play-off finals before, and we've just got to try and use it all around the changing room to try to just enjoy it as well. That's the most important thing - enjoy the pressure of being a footballer."