Curle unimpressed by fringe players and tells them to be 'sharper' both 'mentally and physically'

Joe Martin was handed his first league start for almost three months and there was also a return for Steve Arnold between the sticks.

Chris Lines and Harry Smith also came in as Curle made four changes, but the afternoon turned into a wretched one for his side who were comfortably beaten by the 18th-placed hosts.

The poor nature of Town's performance will almost certainly force Curle into more changes when they host Cheltenham on Sunday.

"There have been players who haven't been getting game-time and they've been champing at the bit but they came into the team against Crawley and didn't do well," said Curle.

"That's part and parcel of the work that they do when they're not in the team - they need to be sharper and that's not just physically, that's also mentally because they have to be sharper.

"We have the basics in place and it was down to basic defending. We keep the man and the ball in front of us and stay goalside."

With the January transfer window opening in a few days, Curle was also asked if he has concerns over the depth of his squad.

"No, going into this busy period we knew we would have to use all of the squad and everyone would get game-time," he replied.

"That's probably even more so the case now with the two injuries and we've got players in the team that won't be able to play all four or five games over this period."