Jamie Proctor has revealed that Crawley’s decision to sack Richie Barker has left the squad shell-shocked.

Barker was dismissed last Wednesday after a run of seven league games without a win despite Reds being just six points outside the play-off zone in 12th place.

Proctor believes Barker should have been given more time after guiding Crawley to tenth place in League One last season on a small budget.

The striker said: “You are always hearing rumours of this and that but we didn’t see it coming at all.

“We weren’t playing great but the position we were in the league you don’t really expect it until you are really struggling and in the bottom three.

“The manager did a great job last year and this year as well and although we hadn’t won in a while we were unbeaten in four so all the lads were surprised.”

Crawley dropped into the bottom half of League One following Saturday’s 1-0 defeat at ten-man Crewe under caretakers Martin Hinshelwood and Gary Alexander.

Proctor admits it would be good to get a new manager in as quickly as possible to help turn things around with Danny Wilson – a close friend of Barker - emerging as the bookmaker’s favourite.

Proctor added: “It would be good to get someone in quickly but we’ll take every day as it comes. We would like the situation to be resolved but whether we have a new manager tomorrow or don’t have one for the next six months we’ll just get on with it and try not to let it affect us.”