Transfer deadline day: Crawley Town boss Kevin Betsy expecting to make 'a couple more additions' to the squad

The Reds have endured a difficult start to the League Two campaign – a complete contrast to their excellent cup form.

Crawley are winless after six league games, and sit third-from-bottom in the table, but have claimed the scalps of division-above Bristol Rovers and Premier League Fulham in the Carabao Cup, as well as 2008 FA Cup winners Portsmouth in the Papa John’s Trophy.

The Reds’ woes have been exacerbated by a lengthy injury list that has deprived Betsy of eight first team players.

And the Crawley boss admitted he and new director of football Chris Galley will be ‘busy’ trying to strengthen the Reds squad ahead of tonight’s deadline.

Betsy said: “I am [expecting to be busy]. I am busy most days.

“The phone never stops going and our director of football Chris is doing a good job, along with the ownership group.

“I’m trying to look at where we can improve the squad and where we might need players to go and get some playing time.

“We’ve been comfortable and happy with what we’ve done beforehand [in the transfer market]. It’s not a case of needing to panic or anything like that.

“We’ve been really strategic with our work. We’ve had a clear plan right from the beginning.

“Hopefully there’s a couple more additions to add to the group in the next six or seven hours.”

It’s been a busy summer transfer window at Broadfield Stadium. Crawley have welcomed 16 new faces on permanent and loan deals, and bid farewell to 15 of last season’s squad.

When asked whether he was happy with the Reds’ transfer business so far, Betsy added: “Without a doubt. We’ve added depth and quality to the group. We’ve added experience, as well as youth. We know that’s an important balance to have.

“We’ve retained the togetherness and the team spirit that was already in place here before, which is important to us.

“We will keep building the playing style that we want to play and try and improve our players.”

Betsy also provided intriguing insight on getting deals done on deadline day.

With clubs scrambling at the last minute to get deals over the line, the former Arsenal under-23s boss revealed many different factors needed to be taken into account before moves could be finalised.

He continued: “There’s a lot of details that go into it. There’s a lot of things that clubs need to weigh up.

“There’s injury situations, there’s a lack of form [for a player], some manager and coaches can be emotional in terms of their decision making. A player might have one bad game and the manager will want him out straight away.

“There’s all these different permutations that can occur, but I think from our perspective we’ve been very thoughtful in our planning and we knew which positions needed strengthening.

“We’re always planning ahead, but there is a lot more detail that goes into it behind the scenes.”