Crawley boss Steve Evans has told his players to prove they are worth keeping next season.

The majority of the Reds squads are on deals which run out in the summer and have been warned they need to keep their standards up in the season run-in if they want to stay at the club.

Crawley have little to play for in the remaining 13 games after seeing a promising campaign fall apart in recent weeks.

They travel to Northwich Victoria on Saturday in lower mid-table following a run of one win from their last seven league games.

Evans is planning to launch an assault on the Blue Square premier play-offs next season and believes he has the nucleus of players to achieve it.

But he still has question marks over some of his charges and will assess them in the remaining games before starting contract renegotiation talks.

He said: "We have a chance to look at the players, rubber stamp the ones we want to keep and put some of the others on the maybe pile.

"We have already been making certain decisions with next year in mind, like letting Paul Watson go out on loan (to Havant).

"That was fundamentally done so we could have a look at James Krause in the left-back position. If Paul had stayed he would have been playing there every week but you have to remember that when James played in the first ten games we did very well.

"We want to make sure that when we make the decisions at the end of the season we can look at every player in the eye and say they had a chance.

"All of the players want to be part of what we are doing here and as a management team you need to be able to give everyone an opportunity for next season.

"We can then go out and hand pick selected players we want in the summer, rather than take some of the gambles we've maybe had to do this year.î Evans believes his side's preparations for next season will be helped by their tough finish to the current campaign.

Nine of the final fixtures are against sides either fighting for a play-off place or battling against relegation.

Evans said: "We have a very hard run-in against teams fighting to stay up like Northwich and teams up there like Aldershot, Burton and Torquay.

"Some managers wouldn't want a run-in like that but I do. It is part of the experience for the young players and it will test them.

"They have come through with flying colours so far and there is no doubt this will hold us in good stead for next season.

"All the youngsters have exceeded the amount of games we thought they were going to play and they now seem to be getting their second wind and coming out of the dip in form.î Top scorer Jamie Cook (dead leg) and midfielder Lee Blackburn (thigh) are the only doubts ahead of the trip to Cheshire. Evans has reassured fans Crawley's midweek travel problems were not down to finances.

Reds players were forced to drive to Altrincham in their own cars after the team bus reportedly broke down.

Evans said: "Our pre-match preparations were disrupted due to a late mechanical problem with the team coach."

Northwich: Scott Tynan, Michael Bowler, Cortez Belle, Michael Welch, Ryan Brown, Michael Byrne, Josh Wilson, Joel Byrom, Jamie Mullan, Lee Steele, Darryn Stamp.S ubs from: Natt Kerr, Luke Horrocks, Cayne Hanley, Aaron Burns, Matt Crowell.

Crawley: Ashley Bayes, Glenn Wilson, Bradley Thomas, Jamie Stevens, Kieran Murphy, Thomas Pinault, Tyrone Thompson, Dannie Bulman, Jamie Cook, Ollie Allen, Jon-Paul Pittman.

Subs from: Josh Dutton-Black, Kevin James, Mustapha Carayol, Dominic Shimmin, James Krause.