Crawley Town have completed the signing of midfielder Chris Atkinson on a month's loan from Crewe Alexandra.

Atkinson, 23, goes straight into the squad for Crawley's clash with Notts County on Saturday as Reds bid for an ninth win in their in their last ten home games in League Two.

Boss Mark Yates moved to sign the former Huddersfield Town midfielder with Jimmy Smith ruled out for at least two months with a broken bone in a foot with Atkinson available for the home games against Notts County and Mansfield plus trips to Yeovil Town and Stevenage.

Atkinson has made exactly 100 league appearances – scoring eight goals – during a career which has also featured loan spells at Chesterfield, Tranmere Rovers, Bradford City and Darlington but has not played for Crewe since November.

His signing follows the arrival of left-back George Smith from Barnsley last week with Yates confirming there will be no further additions to his squad before the weekend.

Yates said: "Chris is someone I have been tracking for a little while and managed to get him out initially for a month with a view to seeing where we go with it.

"He is a player I have always liked. He has scored goals against my teams in the past and really glad he is here. With Jimmy out felt we needed some more energy in there and a goal threat so hopefully Chris will come in and provide that for us.

"I enquired about quite a few more and there was possibly one more today but I don't think it is going to happen now so we'll go with what we've got for the weekend and I'm happy with that."

Yates has also confirmed that he has offered Darryl Flahavan and Ross Jenkins deals until the end of the season. Former Watford midfielder Jenkins signed on a short-term contract in September with ex-Portsmouth and Bournemouth goalkeeper Flahavan arriving in October.

"I've offered Ross and Darryl contracts to the end of the season and expecting an answer next couple of days," added Yates. "Darryl has played a lot of games and done pretty well and Ross has been a little bit unlucky he hasn't played more so hopefully they will decide to stay."