John Gregory was left to rue missed chances as Crawley went down 1-0 away to Preston.

But the Reds boss was proud of his players for the effort they put in following a gruelling run of fixtures.

Billy Clarke lifted their best chance of the game over the crossbar in the second half and Jamie Proctor headed a corner over the top from a good position in stoppage time.

Gregory said: “Missed opportunities has been the story of the last couple of games. They had one real clear cut chance and they took it.

“I thought we totally bossed the second half, the first five minutes we weren’t really in it but for the last 40 minutes it was all Crawley. The substitutions they made was to try to slow the game down.

“We kept battling away, Paul Jones wasn’t particularly busy in the second half but in the end they managed to hang on to what they had.”

The taxing schedule as they play catch-up in fixtures has taken its toll on the players with Matt Tubbs missing out at Preston with a minor hamstring injury.

Gregory added: “The reason Matt Tubbs was not here is he is worn out. We have been asking him to go out there Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday, Tuesday and it has been hard to keep going.

"We lost Josh this week for the same thing. He has played almost every single minute since coming back against Walsall and sometimes the body can’t go again.

“We now have two days and then we play again. It is like that right to the end and it is exceptionally hard for the players who play every week.”