Crawley Town's Scott Hiley believes the club are very close to lifting "a huge weight off their shoulders" by climbing out of the relegation zone.

Nobody gave Crawley a chance at the start of the season after they started with a ten-point penalty deduction and registered a team of youngsters just so that they could compete.

But manager John Hollins has masterminded a fairytale revival and, following a superb start, the Red Devils need just three points and for St Albans and Southport above them to lose to be out of the drop zone.

"To get out of the relegation zone at such an early stage of the season would be a fantastic achievement considering everything that has happened," Hiley told The Argus.

"Not many people gave us much chance at the beginning of the season but we had a great start to wipe out the ten-point deficit and after a bit of a blip we are getting back on track again.

"There is still a long way to go but it would lift such a huge weight off our shoulders.

"The younger lads get a bit down when they look at the league table but I try to remind them that if it wasn't for the ten-point penalty we would be in the top half."

And even if results don't go Crawley's way on Tuesday night, Hiley believes when the club eventually do get out of the relegation zone they can only go from strength to strength.

"We have got to put a run of results together otherwise we'll be battling away at the bottom all season," added the 38-year-old.

"If we can pull clear of the bottom three then we can start to look up rather than down."