The Crewe managerial legend that is Dario Gradi MBE believes his side still have an outside chance of gate-crashing the end-of-season promotion play-offs despite lying in 12^th place ahead of tomorrow's visit to Victoria Road writes Phil Ravitz.

The man who was British soccer's longest serving manager up to two seasons ago, having guided the Alex for 26 consecutive campaigns, has been back at the helm at Gresty Road for the past three months.

And the Cheshire side's fortunes have improved since the legendary boss took back the reins following the sacking of former Icelandic national manager and ex-Barnsley and Stoke boss Gudjon Thodarsson after just a few months in charge.

Gradi stepped down in 2007 to take the position of Technical Director, promoting his first-team coach Steve Holland to team manager, but Holland, now reserve team boss at Chelsea was better suited to a coaching role and the side were relegated from the Championship, where Gradi previously had them punching well above their weight for eight out of nine successive seasons.

A second consecutive relegation followed under Thodarsson last season and so his fellow directors called on the man who is a freeman of the Borough of Crewe & Nantwich, has a road in the town and even a pop group who hail from Crewe - 'Dario G' - named after him, to take up the managerial reins once again.

Gradi has reverted to the style that has made him famous through the land of producing and promoting his own talent - so currently youngsters such as Matt Tootle, Danny Shelley and Ashley Westwood are making his starting line-up.

They follow in the very illustrious footsteps of such as David Platt, Danny Murphy, Neil Lennon, Robbie Savage, Dean Ashton, Seth Johnson, Geoff Thomas, Ashley Ward and Rob Jones, who have all had their careers either developed or rescued by Gradi, several after being discarded, particularly by the big Manchester and Liverpool clubs.

Many of Gradi's current play-off hopes are pinned on the scoring exploits of his front two - Calvin Zola and Clayton Donaldson - who were both big money signings 18 months ago, when Crewe were still in League 1 - Zola being signed from Tranmere, Donaldson brought back to England after a spell with Hibernian in the SPL.

To date, the pair have notched 14 times with Zola being particularly impressive with 11 of them, a feat that has attracted the interest of Championship pair Peterborough and Queens Park Rangers, Peterborough having already had one bid turned down with Crewe reportedly sticking a £1 million price tag on their striker.

The Crewe boss is almost as desperate as Daggers' management for tomorrow's game to be played. His side's last outing was also on Bank Holiday Monday, December 28, when he rested several players and paid the price with a 4-1 walloping in the Cheshire derby at Macclesfield.

That reverse ended a run of six matches unbeaten, in which the Railwaymen took both the unbeaten home records of Chesterfield, 2-1, in a game in which on loan keeper Steve Phillips from Bristol Rovers saved two penalties and Barnet, by the same score.

There will be a different look to the Daggers line-up from the one that played their last game at home to Cheltenham, following the end of the loan spells of Adam Miller and Nanna Ofori-Twumasi, who have both returned to their parent clubs - Gillingham and Premier leaders Chelsea respectively.

Abu Ogogo, who lost his place following his suspension after his sending off at Macclesfield in October, is set for a recall, while Danny Spiller, who has now signed a contract until the end of the season, will continue his rehabilitation from a hamstring tear, in the centre of midfield.

Newcomers Phil Walsh and Marlon Pack will both be in the squad, but may start their Daggers careers on the bench.

The match referee is Mr Russell Booth who refereed the Daggers first ever Football League fixture at Stockport County in August 2007.

The Club are fully confident that Saturday's League Two clash with Crewe Alexandra will go ahead. "We are 99.9 per cent certain that the pitch will be in tip-top condition," Secretary Terry Grover said. "There is a slight band of snow in the middle, but we have had some rain and that has washed most of the snow away. The thing with this pitch is that it's a very good drainer and all the rain that we've had has now gone. As long as there is no diverse weather then we are very confident of it going ahead."

Likely starting line-ups:

Dag & Red: Roberts, Ogogo, Doe, Arber, Day, Green, Spiller, Gain, Nurse, Benson, Scott.

Crewe: Phillips, Brayford, O'Donnell, Mitchell-King, Tootle, Murphy, Walton, Westwood, Shelley, Zola, Donaldson.

Referee: Russell Booth (Notts).