Dean Saunders admits he would not have answered the SOS from Crawley but for a personal plea from John Gregory.

Saunders took over as interim manager at the Checkatrade.com Stadium on Saturday after Gregory stepped down due to health reasons.

Gregory is due to have open-heart surgery at the start of next month with his last role being to convince Saunders to help keep Reds in League One.

Saunders said: “I’d known that John was not well for a few weeks and was asked whether I would take over but it took me a while to decide.

“I didn’t have to put myself in this position really by coming into a club in a relegation battle but the fact I know John made me put my neck on line.

“Some people have said I’m mad for doing it but John is a friend and I know Michael (Dunford, chief executive) from Derby and they persuaded me to do it.

“I also had to get assurances from the board that they were going to give me the tools to turn things around otherwise I wouldn’t have come in.

“They have told me I can get players in and hopefully with couple of quality additions combined with my enthusiasm we will win some games and get up that table.”