Crawley Town's Matt Sparrow eyes fresh start after Brighton exit

Matt Sparrow has targeted regular games after leaving Brighton & Hove Albion to join League One side Crawley Town.

The 31-year-old has made over 450 career appearances but has not played first team football for the Seagulls this season.

He told BBC Sussex: "When Crawley came knocking it was a no-brainer.

"It has been frustrating times this season and it was the right time for me to cut my losses and try and play regular football."

In total Sparrow scored eight goals in 58 appearances for Brighton over the course of two seasons after joining from Scunthorpe in the summer of 2010.

However he did not feature in Albion manager Gus Poyet's first-team squad this season and he says that spending time on the sidelines has been difficult.

"No player is happy not being involved or being part of it," he said.

"There's no point in sulking or beating yourself up about it.

"All I can do is keep myself in good shape while I'm not playing."

Sparrow's last first-team appearance came almost 10 months ago, in March, and he says he does not know exactly how ready he is for regular matches.

"It's different when you're training every day," he continued.

"I've always kept myself in good condition.

"When it comes to match fitness it's a totally different story.

"Time will tell. Hopefully it won't take me too long."

Crawley are currently one point off the League One play-off places and Sparrow hopes he can help the club as they seek to achieve a third successive promotion.

"I've got promoted three times, twice with Scunthorpe and once with Brighton.

"It would be nice to make it four but there is a long way to go yet and we've got to put a lot of hard work in.

"I think they are team who've done fantastically in the last couple of years and are a team on the up in my opinion.

"Hopefully I can try and add to the squad."

Sparrow has only signed a six-month deal with the Broadfield Stadium outfit.

"I don't want to rush it," he said.

"I want to see what happens, sit down at the end of the season and look at it again."