John Gregory is expecting an “explosion” from his under-achieving players as he bids to launch his Crawley Town reign with victory in the FA Cup at Bristol Rovers today.

Reds’ only victory in their last nine games came in the previous round at Hednesford Town, a run of results that cost former boss Richie Barker his job.

Gregory senses there is a feeling of guilt amongst the squad for costing Barker his job along with a desire to get back to winning ways under the new manager.

Gregory said: “If things had been that much better on the field Richie would still be here instead of being out of works so there is a bit of a guilt feeling amongst them.

“But they also feel from club’s point of view they should be performing better than they have been. Certain players have not stepped up to the plate recently in the way they were doing in August and September.

“When a new boss comes in for some reason players always seem to be able find an extra 15% or 20% from somewhere. Why wasn’t that there last week and the week before that? I don’t know but it is my job to get everybody playing to their maximum every single time they pull on a Crawley Town shirt.

“Everyone is raring to go so I’m hoping there will be an explosion today.

“In the last couple of days they have been incredibly fired up and I have had to stop training a couple of times to calm it down a little bit.”