Gregory in striker search

Crawley boss John Gregory admits he may have to bring in some fresh firepower after a 2-0 defeat at Preston.

The Red Devils are hovering just two points above the bottom four after Bailey Wright and Joe Garner netted at Deepdale. And Gregory conceded his side needed an added cutting edge after recovering from a slow start. "It's a personnel issue," he said. "I possibly haven't got the right personnel. We've got people coming back up to match fitness after injuries, but we had a lot of pressure throughout most of the game, so to not score is disappointing for me. "We rely on Izale McLeod too much, so it's time to have a good look at it and maybe bring someone in from outside. "We'll look at the loan market and see if we can find someone who will make a difference to our attacking play. "I thought we stood up to them in the second half after they started quite well; we had eight corners to their three and we only restricted them to a couple of shots. "I can't remember Jamie Ashdown having too much to do in the second 45 minutes other than pick the ball out of the net." Ashdown was the busier of the two goalkeepers early on, with the Crawley stopper producing a magnificent save to deny Garner an early goal. However, from the resulting corner Preston did go ahead, as Wright expertly tucked home from inside the area to nudge the home side in front. Crawley almost provided an immediate response as Dean Leacock hit the bar with a header, but that was about as much as Gregory's men could muster. And, 20 minutes into the second half the points were sewn up, as Garner slotted home from the penalty spot after Mat Sadler had handled inside the box. "We waited for opportunities and were very patient, which was good to see," said Preston boss Simon Grayson. "The lads have responded in a very positive manner, which I'm very pleased with overall. "The biggest difference was our ball retention was far greater; that's been a major reason why we've been conceding goals of late, but we didn't force it all day. "I'm very satisfied that we've got a clean sheet, two goals and three points - overall it was a very good performance. "We sat down in the week and talked about the previous games, and it would have been easy for me to make knee-jerk reactions and make five or six changes to the team. "However, I'm a positive person and I believe that what we put out there could get the result. We managed the game a lot better than we have done in recent weeks." Breaking news, transfer gossip, line ups and goal alerts from your football club - delivered direct to your mobile. Sign up for Sky Sports Alerts