Crawley boss John Gregory refuses to throw in the towel in the race to reach the play-offs.

Reds are 15 points adrift of sixth-placed Peterborough after picking up just two points from their last three games but still have four games in hand on Darren Ferguson’s stuttering side.

A 1-1 draw at struggling Shrewsbury on Tuesday left them four points above the League One relegation zone but Gregory insists he is still focusing on winning promotion rather than avoiding relegation.

Gregory said: “We’ll keep looking above us and see who we can pick off. Peterborough, Walsall and Port Vale all lost on Tuesday so we actually made up ground on them.

“In the last three games we had enough chances to win them all. We should be sat here with seven more points than we have so why shouldn’t I be looking up.

“The only difference between us and those at the top of the table like Brentford and Leyton Orient is that they get two chances in a game and they score two goals. We need to be more ruthless if we are to push for the play-offs.

“I’m not looking over my shoulder at all. The results down the bottom all went our way on Tuesday and with the number of games we have in hand we should be looking up, not down.”

Crawley will welcome back Andy Drury for the visit of Colchester United today after the midfielder missed the trip to Shrewsbury due to a groin injury.

Gregory is expected to recall top scorer Matt Tubbs to the starting line up having left him on the bench on Tuesday while Colchester are sweating on the fitness of their leading marksman Jabo Ibehre.

Colchester are a point behind Crawley in 17th place and the Reds boss is expecting another testing afternoon. He said: “They beat Coventry recently so we know it is going to be tough.

“Like a lot of teams in this division they have the ability to get a result against anyone. We saw that in the second half against Shrewsbury that there are no easy games as they are second from bottom but they really had us on the ropes.”

Crawley (4-4-2, possible): P Jones; P Connolly, McFadzean, Walsh, Sadler; Simpson, Bulman, Drury, M Jones; Clarke, Tubbs. Subs from: Maddison, M Connolly, Torres, Dicker, Boateng, Kaikai, Proctor, Fallon.

Colchester (4-2-3-1): Walker; Wilson, Eastman, Okuonghae, Dickson; Wright, Bean; Massey, Sears, Watt; Ibehre. Subs from: Eastmond, Sesay, Cousins, Olufemi, Vose, Morrison, Gilbey, Bonne.