Boss Dean Saunders admits Crawley are facing an uphill battle to stay in League One after slipping to the bottom of the table.

Reds suffered a third successive away defeat after going down to a solitary goal from Antoni Sarcevic just before half-time at Fleetwood.

Yeovil’s draw at Coventry meant they climbed above Crawley who are now five points adrift of safety having gone 14 games without a win.

Saunders said: “I knew I was in for a battle when I came here. I didn’t expect we would start beating everyone straight away.

“Obviously we’ve gone a long time without winning and it has taken a toll on the players but I have got to come up with a formula to get us over the line.

“I thought we put them under pressure in the second half and had a lot of corners but it didn’t quite fall for us.

“The first half was scrappy but overall I didn’t think there was a lot in the game. It is disappointing but we have just got to roll up our sleeves and go again on Tuesday (at Chesterfield).”