John Gregory has told his Crawley players they need to find a ruthless streak.

The Reds boss is delighted with the progress made since he was appointed at the start of December.

Crawley recorded their second win in three matches when they beat Notts County 1-0 on Sunday.

However, they failed to make the most of a stream of chances created in that game, just as they had done on Boxing Day when some glaring misses contributed to a 2-0 defeat to MK Dons.

Gregory said: “You won’t get away with that against the better teams.

“Against Milton Keynes, (Patrick) Bamford had one one-on-one and he scored. Against Preston, we made a mistake, they broke one-on-one and it ends up in our net. We have been punished twice when we have had opportunities against us.

“It is not good enough just to have a shot. It has to end up in the net.

“When you get clearcut chances you need to put them in the net.”

Crawley head to eighth-place Swindon Town tomorrow.

The busy festive programme has not given Gregory as much time as he would have liked on the training ground but he hopes new first team coach Guy Whittingham – a prolific goalscorer in his career – can help the Reds turn chances into goals.

He said: “We were waiting for the second goal (against Notts County). When you get the chance to get one, then take it because anything could have happened in that last five minutes.

“They got free-kicks on both sides. One of those could hit someone on the back of the head, on the backside, it drops, somebody has a shot and it ends up in the back of the net. That is what can happen if you don’t take the chances you should do.

“We will keep working on it. I have got Guy Whittingham now.”

Crawley follows the trip to Swindon with a second attempt to play their FA Cup second round replay with Bristol Rovers at the Checkatrade.com Stadium on Saturday.

The league game with Tranmere which was scheduled for Saturday has now been rearranged for Tuesday February 18.

Crawley’s FA Youth Cup third round tie at home to Watford has been rescheduled for Friday January 10 (7pm). The winners will be at home to Norwich in the next round.