Boss Richie Barker fears a fixture backlog could threaten Crawley’s hope of forcing their way into the League One play-offs after their home game against Preston North End was postponed last night.

Referee Simon Hooper deemed the pitch unplayable 70 minutes before kick-off due to persistent rain despite passing it fit an hour and a half earlier.

It means Crawley will not have played for three weeks when they take on Swindon Town at Broadfield Stadium in front of the Sky cameras on Saturday.

The home game against Carlisle was called off ten days ago due to snow while Saturday’s scheduled clash with Sheffield United had to be rearranged as the Blades were in FA Cup action.

Barker said: “There are 12 weeks left in the season and we have got 19 games to fit in so we are going to end up playing most Tuesdays.

“It is going to be tough now for the next two and a half months as we are going to spend nearly all our time either preparing for a game or recovering from a game.

“We are going to end up playing pretty much every Tuesday night which I am not sure is an advantage to us.

“A couple of teams have got three games in hand on already. We will have a minimum of one, two or three games on everybody and that really becomes a test.”