Crawley striker Joff Vansittart believes his side can avoid the end of season restructuring of non-league football by winning the premier division.

Vansittart insists Reds have good enough players to win automatic promotion to the Conference.

Finishing as champions will be the only way Crawley will avoid being embroiled in the complicated changes to the football pyramid which are due to come into force next season.

Two new regional divisions - Conference north and south - are due to be introduced to feed into the Conference. They will be made up of teams from the Dr Martens, Ryman and Northern leagues.

Crawley will qualify for the Conference's southern division if they finish in the top 13 teams in the premier division.

If they finish any lower they will have to enter a baffling play-off system to try and qualify and failure in these will effectively mean relegation.

But Vansittart, who played in the Conference with Farnborough and Dover, insists the Reds are not planning to get involved.

He said: "We all want to prove we can be a Conference team. All the players are looking to show we are good enough to play at that level and I think we are.

"The set-up at the club is good enough for the Conference and if you look at the team, there are quite a few players who have played at a higher level. There is no reason why we can't do it."

Crawley were top of the premier division four weeks ago before two straight defeats saw them plummet to eighth.

They go into Saturday's home game against Tiverton eight points off the leaders Weymouth, but with a game in hand.

Vansittart has been a bit-part player this season because of injuries. He scored only his second goal of the campaign in Tuesday's 4-1 FA Trophy win against St Albans, but has now declared himself fit and raring to go ahead of the busy Christmas period.

He added: "In the last couple of games we have played well but have not won. That is something we have to change because we need to get back on track.

"Personally, it was good to get back on the scoresheet and hopefully I can do that more often now I am fit. It is just a matter of playing games because my body is 100 percent fine, so the more I play the better I will be."