Boss Dean Saunders has warned Crawley’s players their futures are at stake over the next two and a half months.

A troubled season hit a new low on Tuesday night when Reds were thrashed 5-0 at home by Doncaster Rovers.

The result cast fresh doubts over Saunders’ optimism that he is capable of keeping the club in League One, having taken over from John Gregory on an interim basis at the end of December.

Crawley go into Saturday’s clash with Barnsley at the Checkatrade.com Stadium four points adrift of safety and having only won once in their last 18 games.

Saunders does not have the money to shake up his squad and admits it is down to the players already at the club to turn Crawley’s fortunes around.

And he says the rewards if they do could be significant with the majority of them out of contract in the summer.

But he has also pointed out that relegation to League Two is likely to have a damaging affect on players’ career.

Saunders said: “I’ve told them if we stay up they could have Championship clubs looking at them.

“To stay up we will need to play well between now and the end of the season and that will get them noticed. If Izale (McLeod) scores the goals to keep us up then a Championship club might come in for him.

“But if we get relegated it is Rushden and Diamonds. People don’t think it will happen to them but I have seen it.

“Dean Morgan was at Woking on peanuts when we signed him and he has got more talent than all of them so it shows what can happen.”