Star defenders Joe Walsh and Kyle McFadzean both turned down big money moves to stay at Crawley on deadline day.

Reds boss John Gregory has revealed the League One club accepted lucrative bids for the centre-back pairing on Friday but the players decided they wanted to remain at the Checkatrade.com Stadium.

The bid for Wales under-21 international Walsh, pictured, was in excess of the £400,000 Crawley rejected two weeks ago while the offer for McFadzean was believed to be slightly lower.

Gregory said: “We were offered a very good sum for Joe but he decided he wanted to stay. Kyle also had a pretty good financial offer but turned it down so I’m delighted we were able to hold on to what I consider to be the heart and the soul of the team.

“The fact they turned down offers which would have made them that much richer and given them better security as they were long term says a lot about how much they love playing for Crawley.”

The attitudes of Walsh and McFadzean was in complete contrast to Nicky Adams who moved to Rotherham United for an undisclosed fee – reported to be £95,000 – on deadline day.

Gregory has accused Rotherham of tapping up the former Leicester City winger and says he had no option but to sell Adams once he had made it clear he no longer wanted to be at Crawley.

Gregory added: “Nicky knew about Rotherham’s offer, so they obviously got to him, and basically told me he wanted to leave. He wasn’t going to sign a new contract for next season so when you have got somebody who is jumping up and down because they don’t want to be at your club I did the only sensible thing.

“We felt we got a fair amount considering the length of time Nicky had left on his contract. If he had wanted to stay then we would have kept him but he was adamant he wasn’t going to sign a new contract and wanted to go.”

Meanwhile, James Hurst has been sent back to Crawley early from his loan at Northampton Town.

The right-back made just one appearance for the Cobblers - being substituted after 64 minutes - and was not even on the bench on Saturday.

Despite returning to the Checkatrade.com Stadium he will not be available to play for Crawley until his loan officially expires on February 17.