A familiar theme is starting to emerge at Crawley as Steve Evans contends with a lengthening injury list.

The absence of key individuals arguably cost his side a play-off place last season and the Reds boss could be without six players when they go into the lion’s den at Luton tomorrow night.

Crawley looked vulnerable at the back against Grays on Saturday and, as Evans conceded, the visitors’ 85th-minute equaliser was no more than they deserved. But with only two recognised defenders fit that was hardly a surprise.

Chris Giles and Simon Rusk joined the absentees during training while Adam Quinn is some way off a return because of a persistent calf problem.

Glenn Wilson, who returned after missing four games, lasted only 45 minutes before suffering a recurrence of his hamstring injury while Chris Carruthers, who has arrived on a month’s loan from Oxford and can play left-back or centre-half, had to operate in midfield when Charlie Ademeno limped off after getting a whack on his foot.

Evans conceded that he was “putting square pegs in round holes” but refused to use that as an excuse as his side faded badly after getting the perfect start when Jefferson Louis scored his first goal for the club on six minutes.

He pointed the finger in the direction of Eddie Hutchinson, who had to drop back from midfield to play centre-half, for Grays’ late leveller when substitute Charlie Taylor scored with a free header from six yards.

He said: “Eddie is not a defender but he was nominated to pick up their guy and it has cost us what would have been a great win.

“But it wasn’t a good performance and Grays did not deserve to leave empty-handed.

“It was as poor as we’ve been. We had a 10-15 minute spell in the second half when we put them through the ringer looking for the second goal but in the last 15 minutes we were hanging on. I have got no issues with the result, they deserved a point.”

Makeshift A makeshift back four had settled on a containment policy long before Grays did score and it could have been worse. Danny Charge hit a post and missed two great chances with only debutant Nick Jordan to beat, the second after a slip by Sam Rents.

The former Albion left-back admitted that Crawley had sat too deep in the closing stages.

Rents said: “In the last 10-15 minutes we invited pressure on to us. It was terrible to concede so late but it was coming.

“Of course it’s nice to play in a settled back four every week but we’re professionals and should be able to adapt if there are guys in there who don’t normally play in defence.”

Evans may have been a bit harsh on his players when he said it was a worse performance than last week’s 4-1 defeat by Gateshead and there were some positives.

Nick Jordan was impressive in goal after ending Simon Rayner’s ever present run since he arrived at the start of last season and Louis thoroughly deserved his goal, a well-taken half-volley after Wilson had knocked down Rents’ free-kick.

He might have had another when a second-half shot drifted just wide and throughout his strength and awareness of team-mates caused Grays lots of problems.

Wilson hit a post with a close-range header and Sam Gaughran’s superbly-timed tackle denied Jamie Cook but Reds found it hard to carve out clear-cut chances in the last half hour.

Evans added: “Jefferson was a handful and worked the channels well and Chris Carruthers worked his socks off but it’s hard to judge how good he was because we were so poor as a team. But we’ll dust ourselves down and go again tomorrow.”

Crawley: Jordan; Forrest, Wilson (sub Cogan 45), Broadhurst, Rents; Malcolm, Pinault, Hutchinson; Cook (sub Jordan 80); Ademeno (sub Carruthers 21), Louis. Subs not used: Rayner, Killeen.

Bookings: Forrest Grays Athletic: Edwards; Gaughran, Mawer, Hoyte, Poole; Rigolioso (sub Taylor 68), Cutler (sub Slabber 77), Harvey (sub Davies 60), Beavan, Graham. Charge. Subs not used: Brahm-Barret, Lumley.

Bookings: Rigoglioso, Charge, Davies.

Referee: Stephen Ross.