Jefferson Louis has had more clubs than Tiger Woods so when the Crawley striker talks about putting one over his old side his words could have something of a hollow ring to them.

When the 30-year-old striker joined Reds in May after a season with tomorrow’s opponents Wrexham they became his 17th different club in the space of a decade.

Louis spent last season at the Racecourse and scored 15 goals in 42 games before opting to move back to London to be with his girlfriend and family.

He reckons he learnt more about the striker’s art from current Dragons’ boss Dean Saunders than anyone else. Hardly a surprise given Saunders’ pedigree as a goalscorer at the top level but an interesting statement nonetheless considering the number of managers he has worked under.

Louis still feels he has a point to prove to Saunders and he would love to make it at the Broadfield tomorrow as Reds tackle one of the pre-season favourites for promotion from the Blue Square premier.

He said: “Dean Saunders was the best coach I worked under. As a striker at the top level himself he taught me a lot.

“He has worked with the likes of Michael Owen and Alan Shearer so when he used to pull you up about something in your game you listened. His one-to-one management skills are really good and I can’t say anything bad about him, he taught me a lot.

“I had some good times at Wrexham and scored loads of goals for them last year. Saturday is going to be a bit emotional but I have to be professional about it. I play for Crawley now and any team we face at home we fancy we can beat, whether it’s Wrexham or anyone else.

“Beating them will put down a marker for our season but my motto is that it’s a marathon, not a 100m sprint. Beating Wrexham doesn’t mean we will win the league. When I was there last season we went on a ten-game unbeaten streak and everyone thought we would go up but we ended up falling out of the play-offs.”

Louis, who played a World Cup qualifier for the Dominican Republic last year, got some inside information from his cousin – midfielder Mikey Malcolm – when he weighed up his options after deciding to head back to the South East.

He said: “It helped that I knew Mikey. I spoke to him before I came. I took his word that it was a good club with a nice set of lads and that is why I signed.

“The move here has made everything so much easier. My family and girlfriend are in London so things have fallen into place.

“I had some good times at Wrexham but I was a long way from home. There are always ups and downs during the season and when I had my downs I had no one close to me to talk too but I’m back home now and things are great.”

First of all, Louis has to get himself back in the starting line-up.

He made a quiet debut against another of his former clubs Mansfield last Saturday and was dropped for Tuesday’s 3-1 win over Forest Green when Steve Evans preferred Charles Ademeno and Jamie Cook, both of whom scored, up front with Lewis Killeen effectively operating as a third striker from wide on the left.

Afterwards, assistant manager Paul Raynor hinted there would be changes to keep things fresh and there will certainly be no one in a red shirt with more of an incentive than Louis.

He said: “I was disappointed to be dropped but hopefully it will be a blessing in disguise and I can play against my old team so I can prove a point to my old manager.

“This is going to be one of our hardest tests of the season – mentally and physically. All the work we did in pre-season is geared towards games like this. They will be a lot harder than Forest Green and we won’t get the number of goalscoring opportunities we did on Tuesday.

“I really believe Wrexham will be up there challenging but I hope we will as well. The best thing for me would be if we won the league and they finished second.”

Crawley (from): Rayner, Rusk, Giles, Broadhurst, Rents, Smith, Hutchinson, Pinault, Killeen, Ademeno, Cook, Louis, Forrest, Powell, Malcolm, Jordan.

Wrexham (from): Russell, Spann, Assoumani, Mike Williams, N.Taylor, Cieslewicz Smith, Taboubi, Fleming, Baynes, Jones, G.Taylor, Wolfenden, Marc Williams, Maxwell, Fairhurst.