Rhys Murphy is determined to give Mark Yates an early Christmas present for helping to get his career back on track.

Murphy is due to complete a successful loan spell at Crawley Town and return to Oldham Athletic following today’s trip to Barnet.

The Shoreham-born striker has scored nine goals in 15 games for Reds – including five in his last four outings – having found the net just twice in his previous 29 matches for Dagenham and Redbridge and Oldham since undergoing groin surgery in April 2014.

Murphy believes he has only just returned to peak condition from that setback and has thanked Reds boss Yates for giving him the opportunity to prove himself again after falling out of favour at Boundary Park.

The 25-year-old said: “I wouldn’t say I am playing any better than at certain other times in my career.

“I am a confident person and I know when I am fit I’m a good player and can score goals but you have to be given the chance to prove it. “I had a spell where I was out for eight months through injury and when I came back I struggled a bit as I was not fully fit.

“But I worked tirelessly in the summer to get myself right and I came back at the start of the season raring to go. I wasn’t really featuring that much at Oldham was I’m thankful that Crawley and the manager here have given me the chance to show what I can do.

“You only get fitness through playing matches and I’ve been playing every week here. I feel I have been getting stronger and stronger and have been playing better for it.”

Murphy will definitely miss Crawley’s festive games at home to Stevenage on Boxing Day and away to Wycombe on December 28 but has hinted he would be receptive to a return when the transfer window opens on January 2.

The former Republic of Ireland under-21 international added: “It will be frustrating to miss out the games over Christmas. I’m fit and scoring goals so I want to be playing and I’m not sure whether I will get that opportunity at Oldham. I don’t know what the situation is so I’ll just have to wait and see what happens. I want to be playing and not wasting my time on the bench but it’s not really in my hands.”

Murphy scored twice in the 3-2 win over Dagenham last weekend and would love to sign off in similar fashion at Barnet today but admits Reds must learn to kill teams off better.

The former Worthing United junior twice gave Crawley a two-goal cushion against Daggers before allowing the visitors to get back into the game.

“We don’t like to do things easy do we?” said Murphy. “That is something we can definitely learn from as we were guilty of two lapses of concentration for their goals. You have to take the positives as we won the game but whether we win, lose or draw you are always looking to see what we could have done better.”