Crawley's in form striker Robbie Collins is attracting interest from league clubs.

Scouts from Millwall and Charlton were at the Caburn Field on Wednesday when Collins scored the only goal in Reds' 1-0 victory over County League Ringmer in the Sussex Senior Cup.

Reading were among the clubs believed to have been represented at Broadfield Stadium last Saturday when Smith hailed the 3-0 win over Havant and Waterlooville which kept them top of the premier division as their best performance of the season.

The only setback was the thigh strain suffered by top scorer Warren Bagnall which looked like ruling him out of today's trip to Chelmsford.

Nevertheless Smith believes he has the strength in depth to sustain a challenge for the Conference, especially with several players still to return from long-term injury.

Jimmy Dack was due to begin his comeback after a cartilage operation with 45 minutes for the reserves today.

Fellow midfielder Keith Sharman will resume training later this week and captain Luke Anderson is only a fortnight away from a return after suffering a recurrence of his ankle injury in the cup win over Chatham last week.

The only long-term casualty is John Ugbah who faces another two months on the sidelines because his cartilage trouble is worse than first feared.

Smith has already secured Jay Lovett on loan from Brentford for a second month and then there is former Croydon defender Ben Judge who has impressed since he joined the club three weeks ago.

"The squad is strong but you need that if you are going to win any league," said Smith. "When everyone is fit I am going to have a few headaches about picking the team but they are the sort of problems you like."

It's been a particularly busy week for two of Smith's players. Goalkeeper Andy Little and midfielder Dave Harlow both played for the Southern League team which drew 3-3 with an FA XI in front of a crowd of 650 at Broadfield Stadium in midweek.

Smith said: "Andy played the first half because he was involved at Ringmer the following night and did well while Dave really took the game by the scruff of the neck in midfield."

Reds were just happy to leave the Caburn Field the following night with no injuries and a place in the next round secured after a robust contest against Glenn Geard's side.

"The game was exactly how I thought it would be," said Smith. "Ringmer had as much of the game as we did and it was very physical but I told the players beforehand not to get involved in anything and they took notice."

Crawley will play Worcester City at Broadfield Stadium on Saturday week in a re-arranged league game, kick off 3.00pm.

Reds are at home to Burnham in the second round of the League Cup.