Albion boss Sami Hyypia says time is running out to get his squad in place for the start of the season.

But chairman Tony Bloom and head of football David Burke are working hard behind the scenes on new signings.

Hyypia is still short of a goalkeeper, left-back, another midfielder, a winger and one or two strikers following the sale of Leo Ulloa to Leicester.

He said: “Hopefully we’ll get a few addtions before the season starts. Time is running out a little bit but we are working hard to get the players in and when it happens is not only up to me.

“The chairman and David Burke are working hard to recruit new faces and hopefully we’ll get them in soon.

“Of course we are waiting to get a few more players in the squad. It was not good when we lost Leo. I would have liked to have kept him here scoring goals for us but, when a player wants to go, it’s a very difficult situation for all of us.

“Now it has been resolved and now we need to find a replacement for him.”

Albion’s three signings so far this summer, former Barnsley striker Chris O'Grady (rib), Congolese midfielder Nzuzi Toko (swollen knee) and Aaron Hughes (ill) all missed last night’s 1-1 draw at Crawley.

Solly March was also an early injury casualty, while Gordon Greer and Inigo Calderon both suffered eyebrow cuts in the first half.

Hyypia said: "It surprised me a little bit the aggressive approach of the opposition but I guess it was a very important game for them.

"It was a pity we had two cuts to the eyebrow and we had to play ten minutes with one less and sometimes with two less.

"Overall I'm quite happy with what I saw on the pitch. We got the ball in the areas we want the ball to be but maybe in the last third we lacked the concentration, movement and lacked the quality in the final third to create more chances."