Darryl Flahavan leaves Crawley Town

The former Portsmouth and Bournemouth stopper, 37, has been Reds’ regular keeper since joining in October, making 16 appearances.

His short-term contract expired on January 16 and last week he was offered an extension to remian at Crawley until the end of the season.

However he delayed signing it and eventually manager Mark Yates withdrew it when another experienced ‘keeper became available who he is hoping to bring in on loan.

Yates said: “We offered him a deal, we (were) to-ing and throw-ing for a little bit and I had to cover my back and I made the decision to withdraw that offer.

“I’d like to thank Darryl for his services, he’s been a real steadying, solid pro’ for us.

“Sometimes you make these decisions that you don’t always get them right but we want to go in a different direction.

“Something came up which potentially could still happen in the next couple of days or week and I’m excited by that prospect.

“I had the worst phone call I have ever had to make to a professional footballer yesterday afternoon (Wednesday) to tell Darryl I had decided to look elsewhere.

“He wasn’t best pleased and I wouldn’t have expected him to be and I thanked him for his service here.

“If we don’t get anything before Saturday, obviously Callum’s playing and I have no qualms about that.

“He’s done great and was perhaps a bit unlucky to lose his place against Portsmouth when we went for a bit of experience with Darryl when he had done well in the two previous games.

“I want two keepers, of course, but I’m more than comfortable with Callum.”

Don’t miss out on all the latest breaking news where you live.

Here are four ways you can be sure you’ll be amongst the first to know what’s going on.

1 Make this website your homepage

2 Like our Facebook page at facebook.com/pages/Sport-Sussex

3 Follow us on Twitter @SportSussex

4 Register with us by clicking on ‘sign in’ (top right corner). You can then receive our daily newsletter AND add your point of view to stories that you read here.

And do share with your family and friends - so they don’t miss out!