Sam Rents insists there is more to come from him and his team as Crawley enter a crucial phase of the season.

The former Albion left-back admits he is still not firing on all cylinders after missing six games with an ankle injury.

But he scored a rare goal with his right foot – his second of the season – in last Saturday’s FA Trophy win over Bashley in his third game back since his enforced lay-off.

Rents suffered the injury against AFC Wimbledon in the FA Cup in October. The sides meet for the fourth time this season at the Broadfield tomorrow when Reds will be looking for their first win over the Dons.

It is the first of four league games in 13 days over the holiday period followed by an FA Trophy trip to Chelmsford on January 9.

Rents said: “I was out for six and a half weeks and it is really boring when you’re injured so I’m glad to be back now.

“We had a dodgy spell but we have won the last two games and we are getting our injured players back.

“We still have a couple of players struggling but it shouldn’t be too long so hopefully if we have a fully fit squad we can build a bit of momentum.

“There are a lot of games in a short space of time over Christmas and if we can carry on getting a few wins it will really build confidence.”

By his own admission, Rents found it tough to adapt to the physical nature of Conference football when he joined from Albion at the start of last season.

But he has developed into arguably one of Reds’ most consistent performers and won England C honours earlier in the season. He had made 18 successive appearances before his injury and only three players have now made more than his 69 starts for the club.

He added: “I’m feeling good. Last Saturday was my third 90 minutes since the injury and the only way to get back to full fitness is by playing.

“I still don’t think I’m 100% sharp but I will only get that from playing games.”

Reds have tended to perform well against the better teams and the Dons arrive having won their last four Blue Square premier games to move to within two points of the play-offs in their first season at this level.

And boss Steve Evans insists all the pressure will be on the visitors.

He said: “It’s probably a massive game for (Wimbledon boss) Terry Brown and their supporters but it’s a normal game for us.

“They are a good club with high expectations based on their resources and I’m sure they will see coming to the Broadfield as a huge game whereas the reality for us is that it’s a normal game where we’re looking to pick up three points.

“We said if we had a good December we’d only be six points or so off the play-off pack. That is a tall order considering we’ve got a big club like Wimbledon here and two games against Eastbourne and a trip to Grays, which is never easy.

“It’s tough but we have only one focus at the moment and that’s Saturday. I think we owe them one after they knocked us out of the FA Cup and we have started to play well again in the last couple of weeks.”

Apart from Chris Giles, who is still struggling with a hamstring injury, Evans expects to have a full-strength squad with Danny Forrest and Eddie Hutchinson both available.

Crawley (from): Rayner, Rusk, Quinn, Wilson, Rents, Broadhurst, Smith, Pinault, Cogan, Ademeno, Malcolm, Forrest, Killeen, Willock, Jordan, Hutchinson, King.

AFC Wimbledon (from): Brown, Conroy, Duncan, Adjei, Lorraine, Judge, Hatton, Wellard, Main, Kedwell, Cumbers, Godfrey, Wellard, Montague, Johnson, Turner, Taylor.