Crawley boss John Gregory has described Matt Harrold’s return from injury as like “signing a new player”.

Harrold made his first start for Reds in the JP Trophy victory over Cambridge United on Tuesday having missed the opening six games of the season with a knee injury.

The striker got through 71 minutes to go with the 12 he managed as a late substitute at Milton Keynes Dons last weekend and is expected to make his full league debut against Rochdale today.

Gregory said: “We’ve really missed Matt so it is brilliant to have him available. People forget we’ve been without him all season and my captain (Josh Simpson) has only played 45 minutes.

“Those are two big players to be missing when you have such a small squad but those kind of things bring us a bit closer together. We are really tight as a bunch because we rely on each other so much.”

Simpson remains sidelined by the ankle injury picked up on the opening day at Barnsley but Ryan Dickson, Bobson Bawling and Conor Henderson are all expected to shake off niggles to feature against Rochdale.

Reds are still missing Gwion Edwards and Joe Walsh after they were involved with Wales Under-21s in Finland yesterday.

Rochdale are expected to recall Ian Henderson up front after the striker was rested for the JP Trophy victory at Crewe in midweek with Albion loanee Shamir Fenelon dropping to the bench.

Skipper Ollie Lancashire and midfielder Matthew Lund both remain sidelined through injury.