Boss John Gregory has warned Crawley they are in for one of their toughest tests of the season at Gillingham today.
The Gills have lost their last three games in League One but will be desperate to bounce back to winning ways against Crawley to ease their fears of being dragged into a relegation dogfight.
The trip to the Priestfield Stadium is the second game in a run of four against teams below Crawley in the table with Reds going to Shrewsbury on Tuesday and then welcoming Colchester next weekend.
What appears to be an easier run of fixtures gives Reds a good chance of further closing the gap on the top six after taking eight points from matches against play-off chasers Rotherham, Walsall, Swindon and Peterborough recently.
But having needed an injury-time goal to salvage a point against struggling Stevenage at home on Tuesday Gregory has warned his side they will need to be at their best to extend their seven-match unbeaten run.
Gregory said: “I told the players before the Stevenage game that it would be the hardest game they would have all season without question and it will be similar against Gillingham.
“I’ve seen a few tweets from fans saying this run of four games are all winnable but we don’t ever look at it like that as we know every game is going to be tough and treat every team the same.
“If you look back you can see that some of our hardest games have come against teams scrapping to stay in this division. Stevenage was exceptionally hard and Notts County put up a hell of a battle before we just managed to win 1-0.
“Maybe when we play the top teams they look at us and think it is only little old Crawley and don’t have the same attitude as those down the bottom of the table who are ready to scrap for everything.”
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