Lifting spirits in Crewe after part of the station blew away last week, a pre-match Husky pitch invader ambling around gamely before kick-off.
Higgins rejected calls from local leaders in Stoke to alter the western route via their city, reaffirming his earlier call to extend work to a superhub station in Crewe as part of the first phase of HS2, originally linking London to Birmingham, to open in 2027.
The scheme, All Change for Crewe, is part of a wider project to regenerate the town centre and surrounding area.
Crewe Alexandra have parted company with experienced defender Gregor Robertson by mutual consent.
His local authority, Crewe and Nantwich (now part of Cheshire East council), took him to court.
In the heady and distant days of plans to have Eurostar trains coming directly from France to Manchester via Crewe, Cheshire schoolchildren took part in art competitions, producing wonderful colourful paintings, based on French artists' styles, extolling the virtues of getting on a train in Crewe and getting off at some exotic place like the south of France.
The seven players were part of Crewe's pre-season training camp in Cornwall.
But, like fellow new arrival David Artell, who was part of Crewe's League Two play-off winning team, Neal was also a promotion winner with Shrewsbury, who went up automatically to League One after finishing second.
Oswell has parted with Crewe, who have been promoted to League One, without making a first-team breakthrough despite being praised for his form while on loan last season with Welsh League outfit Rhyl.
He then became a research fellow at Crewe and Alsager College (now part of Manchester Metropolitan University).
