Dean Saunders launched his reign as Crawley Town’s interim manager with a battling goalless draw against fellow strugglers Colchester United.

An injury-depleted side clung on to pick up a valuable point which lifted them out of the League One relegation zone.

It also ended a run of three consecutive defeats although Colchester will be wondering how they didn’t come away with maximum points after hitting the woodwork four times.

Freddie Sears hit the bar in the first half and struck an upright after the break while Gavin Massey and Tom Eastman were also denied by the frame of the goal.

In contrast Crawley failed to register a shot on target during the whole game as their winless run stretched to 11 games.

Injuries meant Saunders was forced to field a very makeshift defence featuring Lewis Young and Bobson Bawling as full-backs and Marvin Elliott in the middle.

Colchester almost took advantage of the lack of cohesion at the back in the ninth minute when a mistake by Bawling ended with George Moncur firing against an upright from the edge of the area.

There was more panic in the Reds defence in the 16th minute when a poor clearance from Young gave Gavin Massey the opportunity to shoot narrowly wide from 20 yards.

The woodwork came to Crawley’s rescue again 13 minutes before half-time when Brian Jensen deflected a shot from Freddie Sears onto the bar. Sammie Szmodics reacted quickest to turn the rebound home but was ruled offside.

Crawley posed little threat going forward with the closest they went to scoring in the first half being a 20-yard volley from Gwion Edwards which went harmlessly wide.

Saunders replaced Matt Harrold with Gavin Tomlin during the interval in a bid to give Reds more of a cutting edge but it had little effect.

In fact Crawley did not register a shot on target throughout the whole game as they failed to score at home for the first time since the 4-0 defeat to Rochdale back in September.

Colchester continued to press for a winner with Sears forcing Jensen into a smart stop just after half-time.

The former West Ham striker went even closer soon after when his 22-yard effort crashed against the inside of a post and rebounded across the face of goal.

The visitors hit the woodwork for the fourth time in stoppage-time when a header from Tom Eastman came back off a post with Marvin Elliott clearing a follow-up shot from David Fox off the line.

Crawley (4-4-2): Jensen; Young, Elliott, Walsh, Bawling; Miller, Smith, Henderson, Edwards (Banya, 79); Harrold (Tomlin, 46), McLeod. Subs: O’Connor, Richefond, Isaacs.

Colchester (4-3-3): Walker; Clohessy, Gorkss, Eastman, Gordon (Kpekawa, 79); Moncur,. Szmodics, Fox; Massey, Sears, Hewitt (Watt, 75). Subs not used: Lenington, Eastmond, Healey, Bonne, Lapslie.