Dean Saunders will be given four months to prove he deserves the job as Crawley manager on a permanent basis.

Saunders was in the dug-out for the first time at the Checkatrade.com Stadium yesterday as Reds ground out a goalless draw with fellow strugglers Colchester United having taken over from John Gregory on an interim basis 24 hours earlier.

The former Albion and Wales striker has been tasked with keeping Crawley in League One while Gregory recovers from a major heart operation which is scheduled for early next month.

Saunders’ contract only lasts until the end of the season and has publicly said he expects to step aside once Gregory is well enough to return.

Chief executive Michael Dunford hopes Gregory will recover sufficiently to return to work at some stage but admitted that if Saunders kept Reds up then he could be asked to continue as manager.

Dunford said: “There is no timescale as far as John’s recovery is concerned but we hope he will be well enough to come back at some stage.

“The operation may be deemed quite straight-forward but the recuperation period, depending on the individual concerned, can vary so what happens in the future remains to be seen.

“First and foremost we are talking about somebody’s health which is much more important than football.

“We want John to focus on getting better and he can then think of coming back in the future.

“Until then we have got to gain as many points as we can between now and the end of the season to get out of the situation we are in and we hope Dean can help us achieve that.

“What we all want is Dean to get us up the table and for John to get better.

“I’d be a very happy man if both those things happened and if they did then we would have to sit around the table and decide what is in the best interests of the football club.”

Dunford was unwilling to divulge any further details of the exact procedure Gregory requires but admitted the club had been aware of his situation for the “last couple of weeks”.

Saunders attended Crawley’s game against Port Vale at the Checkatrade.com Stadium on December 20 and was also at the 4-1 Boxing Day defeat at Leyton Orient which proved to be Gregory’s final match in charge.

Dunford added: “This really surfaced in the last couple of weeks. John went to see his doctor who referred him to another specialist and the outcome was that he has to have the operation in the very early part of January.

“It may not be as serious an operation as it would have been 25 years ago but it is still a major open-heart operation so we wish him a speedy recovery and hope to see him back at the Checkatrade.com Stadium when he is well enough.

“He has had goodwill messages from a lot of people in football once they heard the news and I’m sure all our supporters will send him their best wishes as nobody wants to see anybody suffer like that.”