Crawley have decided against offering a contract to free agent striker Paul Hayes.

Boss John Gregory watched Hayes in a trial match against Eastleigh earlier this week.

Hayes, who scored two goals in 11 games on loan for Reds at the end of last season, has been without a club since being released by Brentford ten days ago.

The 30-year-old, pictured above, has not scored since netting in Crawley’s 2-0 win at Sheffield United in April and spent an unproductive month on loan at League Two outfit Plymouth Argyle this season.

He also had a recent trial game for former club Scunthorpe before his run-out with Crawley this week when he partnered Emile Sinclair in attack.

Gregory is keen to increase the firepower he has available ahead of a busy Christmas period but is only allowed to sign out-of-contract players until the transfer window opens in January.

And he has now decided Hayes is not the player he is looking for to solve the Reds’ problems in front of goal.

Gregory will also not be following up his interest in Stevenage winger Robin Shroot or Histon forward Lewis Taaffe who also played in the friendly against Eastleigh at Oakwood on Tuesday but has not ruled out the possibility of signing more free agents.

He added: “You can have players in for training and get a pretty good idea of what they can and can’t do but a match situation tends to sort the men out from the boys. Two of the trialists have gone home which tells you everything.

“I will continue to search far and wide to bring in better quality players. There are a few people loitering but sometimes when players are free agent it does tell you something about them.”