Crewe's Billington wants more threat to his game

Lewis Billington was one of only two Crewe players who started every League Two game in 2025-26 [Getty Images] Crewe Alexandra defender Lewis Billington said he has been working a lot on developing his game to become a more complete player as he aims to build on last season's positives. The 22-year-old started every League Two match for the Alex last term and recently signed a new three-year contract to extend his career-long association with the club that started when he was six. He has clocked up 113 appearances across four campaigns and told BBC Radio Stoke he has spent the summer thinking about how he takes his game to the next level. "I have thought about this in the last few weeks and I think I understand the game a lot better than I did even this time last season," he said. "So that probably helps with experience and talking to others on the pitch and off it. "My general understanding in different positions has developed over the last few years. "I thought about how the season went and what I could do better and what I did well how you can get better." Billington made his debut aged 18 in April 2022 - an occasion he felt he "probably wasn't ready for" - but said the FA Cup ties against Derby County 19 months later "felt right, like I deserved to be there". He has been challenged this summer by Crewe's player development manager Kenny Lunt to become the best right-back in League Two and Billington knows he still needs to add more dimensions to his role. "If I could match the games and minutes played [last season] then that would be fantastic - or just adding that threat going forward," Billington said. "Whether it's a goal, or assist, or even just helping build moves and then on the other side of it doing my job and defending a little bit better, whether that's 1v1s or as a unit in general." All the latest Crewe Alexandra news