Crawley could be set to spring another tactical challenge on their League Two rivals.

Harry Kewell is pondering playing without a recognised centre-forward when the opportunity arises.

Reds used the formation in their 6-0 Parafix Senior Cup win over Saltdean on Tuesday.

His assistant Warren Feeney revealed it could be an option in the league.

Kewell’s passing game has given some fourth-tier opponents a challenge they are not used to solving.

And he could now offer the conundrum of facing a team with no centre-forward.

Feeney, himself a former No.9, said: “We’ve looked at it and we’ve got good players, intelligent players.

“You look into these false No.9s or these nine-and-a-halves and I’m not a big lover of it.

“If you’re a centre-forward, you’re a centre-forward.

“But we have tried something and we were pleased with it.

“I think you have got to play with not just one formation but two, three, four formations, and try and adapt.

“No disrespect to Saltdean but we will play against better teams in our league.

“But the manager is one of those who thinks, ‘You’re a footballer, go out and play your football’.”

Reds’ passing style has been a breath of fresh air in League Two.

Feeney said: “There are a lot of teams with a lot bigger budgets than us that we have beat and who are very direct.

“We have had a lot of compliments and we’ve said to the boys, ‘It’s to make you better footballers’.

“We’re not happy with staying 19th, 20th in the league.

“You look at Leicester two years ago. That’s a benchmark.

“They won the Premier League with Championship players.

“We want to make the players better and play football the right way.

“Full credit to the boys, they are buying into what the manager wants.”

Kewell set his side – and their fans – the challenge of adapting their mindset to something different to the direct style often seen in the division.

Feeney can pinpoint games when it has all clicked.

He said: “You look at the Lincoln game.

“The Exeter game I thought they played very, very well.

“There are going to be times when we play well and still get beat.

“But we work on a lot of things and the attitude of the boys can’t be questioned.

“They want to make themselves better.”

Reds host lowly Morecambe on Saturday and Feeney has his eyes on a play-off push They have six points to make up on seventh place.

Feeney said: “It’s going to be difficult but I would say, ‘Why not?’ “We have hit 51 points now with 11 games to go.

“That’s what they finished on in the last two or three years so we have progressed.

“We want to keep going until mathematically we can’t do it.

“We will just try and win football matches and hopefully creep in there but there are a lot of good teams trying to do the same.”