Boss Richie Barker admitted he feared the referee was going to abandon the match during Crawley's 2-0 win over Coventry City which reignited their play-off hopes.

Persistent rain made the pitch barely playable during the second half with the referee consulting both managers as to whether they wanted to continue.

Barker understandably said he did considering Reds were leading through goals from Billy Clarke and Connor Essam.

Barker said: "The pitch was not condusive to passing the ball but I thought we did pretty well despite that. You have to win in different ways depending on the conditions and we adapted well.

"I was worried the referee might call it a day as he looked at it after 60 or 65 minutes. I thought he was sensible as a good percentage of the pitch was playable and once you have got that far into the game you have got to keep going.

"He asked my opinion when we were 1-0 and 2-0 up and my opinion was that I wanted to complete the game. If it had been called off I don't know when we would have played it anyway as this pitch won't recover by Tuesday."

Defeats for Sheffield United, Tranmere and MK Dons and Walsall conceding a last-minute equaliser at Scunthorpe mean Crawley are now just four points outside the play-offs with three games remaining.

Barker said: "It was a fantastic performance and puts us right back in with a shout.

"We are relying on other people but we will not give up. We knew how many wins we needed with eight games to go and we are still on course for that.

"We know it is going to be tough but the fact we are still in contention with three games to go is a massive achievement in itself."