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Reds go for play-offs on a shoestring

1:00pm Friday 5th March 2010

By Bruce Talbot

Midfielder Ben Smith insists Crawley’s players are happy to try and sustain their play-off challenge on a shoestring.

Reds have been operating with the smallest full-time squad in the league all season and boss Steve Evans admits he is unlikely to be able to add to it in the closing seven weeks of the campaign.

His lack of options was exposed again when Smith and Adam Quinn pulled out of Tuesday’s 2-2 draw at Salisbury an hour before kick off.

It left Reds with a bench consisting of striker Danny Forrest, reserve goalkeeper Nick Jordan, two youngsters and Evans’ forty-something assistant Paul Raynor.

They still battled back twice to pick up a point which leaves them in touch with the top five ahead of tomorrow’s tough assignment at second-placed Stevenage.

Smith travelled to Wiltshire but pulled out because of a virus although he expects to be fit, along with Quinn, at Broadhall Way.

And he believes being part of such a small squad is a benefit, not a hindrance.

A sign on Crawley’s dressing room door seems to sum up the mentality of the squad. It reads: “No Entry - Only Us.”

Smith said: “A small squad keeps everyone close-knit. There are no outsiders so no one is in the cold. Everyone in the squad is playing an important part.

“There aren’t many players who are not starting regularly and they know they are going to be involved at some stage between now and the end of the season as we have got Saturday-Tuesday games for the next few weeks.”