ASSISTANT manager Paul Raynor insists Crawley will turn their season around despite the worst injury crisis since he and boss Steve Evans took over in 2007.

There were no names just numbers on the back of Crawley’s change strip at Kit Kat Crescent on Saturday which, whether intentional or not, was a sensible move considering the changes in personnel Evans is having to make from game to game.

He could afford a rueful smile as he watched Charlton versus Brentford on TV before the game and heard that Charlton were playing an unchanged team for the sixth successive game. For Evans, it could be another month before he can even consider that option.

Only three of the side which lost to two goals in the first ten minutes had started against Grays just a week earlier. Evans made four changes for the second successive match but was still without five players – four of whom would be automatic choices.

Although Simon Rusk and skipper Adam Quinn returned Reds lost Karl Broadhurst to illness while Charles Ademeno failed to recover from a heel injury. Ben Smith (bruised foot), Glenn Wilson (hamstring) and Chris Giles (back) did not even make the trip while Thomas Pinault had to start on the bench because of a persistent back problem.

Factor in the departure of Jamie Cook and trying to gel four loan players and it was no surprise that Reds looked disjointed, particularly in the first half.

Raynor said: “We’ve never known anything like it. We had to cobble a team together and it is difficult because of the injuries we have got and gelling new players into the team.

“But we will turn the corner and hopefully that will be against Histon tomorrow. To have six or seven out has left us really stretched but once we get everyone fit you will see a different Crawley Town.”

That is certainly going to be true but the player Reds are going to miss most will not be coming back.

Jamie Cook’s move back to his beloved Oxford has left Crawley without a striker who can snap up the half chances or cause problems with his movement off the ball.

“Jamie can turn tight games like he did at Cambridge and we need to find the best solution to replacing him,” admitted Raynor. “We are crying out for Charles Ademeno who is the obvious choice to play up front.”

Although the versatile Danny Forrest, who has already played in three different positions this season, worked hard alongside Jefferson Louis, Reds lacked a cutting edge although after the first 20 minutes there was little to choose between the teams.

But the damage had been done. Teenage centre-half Dominic Collins handed York the perfect start when he was outmuscled by Richard Brodie and sent the York striker spinning to the deck with a clumsy challenge.

Simon Rayner, preferred to Nick Jordan, had no chance with the penalty and was picking the ball out of the next again five minutes later when Michael Gash, a thorn in Crawley’s side in the past during his Ebbsfleet days, was allowed time and space to turn and shoot into the bottom corner from 15 yards.

Brodie mis-kicked six yards out and Rayner made a superb save to keep out a drive from the impressive striker as Reds threatened to cave in.

A half-time adjustment saw Eddie Hutchinson drop back into central defence and York threatened only sporadically in the second half.

At the other end York keeper Michael Ingham was finally called upon to keep out Forrest's shot at the near post and make an instinctive block when Danny Powell deflected Kieran Djilali’s cross goalwards but the visitors lacked a cutting edge.

Raynor added: “Apart from the first mad ten minutes we were reasonably solid but we gave two sloppy goals away and were left with a mountain to climb. We got into some reasonable attacking positions but haven't really tested their goalkeeper enough.

“Dominic switched off for one minute and got punished. I thought it was a soft penalty but we then gave away another bad goal five minutes later.”

Crumbs of comfort for Reds were the return of skipper Adam Quinn but Reds need to get a few more players back before a proper assessment of how their season will unfold.

York City: Ingham, Purkiss, Sangere, Parslow, Meredith, Smith, Ferrell (Mackin 80), Barratt, Lawless, Gash, Brodie. Subs: O'Hare, Nelthorpe, Mimms, Rankine, Mackin.

Yellow cards: Lawless (foul) Crawley: Rayner, Rusk, Quinn, Collins (Pinault 45), Rents; Djilali, Hutchinson, Barton, Carruthers (Cogan 64); Forrest, Louis. Subs: Pinault, Killeen, Malcolm, Cogan, Powell.

Yellow card: Collins (foul), Quinn (foul), Hutchinson (dissent) Referee: Mark Heywood