A vocal fan got it just right shortly after the final whistle of Crawley's undeserved defeat against Hereford.

"Don't worry Reds, it will come," he shouted at the players as they jogged forlornly around the pitch as part of their post-match warm-down.

The supporter could be accused of being optimistic and wearing red tinted glasses. After all, Crawley are third from bottom with just two points from a possible nine and are yet to score a goal.

Compare that to last season when Reds took seven points from their opening three games, including one against Hereford, and did not lose at home until December and their start to the new campaign seems a disaster.

But anyone who witnessed Saturday's defeat would have been left with plenty to be optimistic about.

Crawley dominated large parts of the game against a side who are 9/2 favourites to win the title.

They hit the woodwork and had another clear chance to score before Guy Ipoua and Tamika Mkandawire capitalised on defensive errors to give Hereford victory in the second half.

Manager Francis Vines' message to his players was exactly the same as the one by the refreshingly positive fan.

He said: "You would have thought we were the ones who were favourites to win the league because we outplayed them at times.

"They came here to play football but in the first half we showed them how it was done. It was just a shame we couldn't continue in the second half.

"We became impatient and tried to be too clever and changed it instead of doing the things that were working.

"There is such fine line. We lost 2-0 but if you had sat and watched it, you would have thought that if we had taken just one of our chances, it could have been the other way round. But I'm not worrying yet because there is a long, long way to go."

While Vines rightly refuses to panic, he does admit Crawley's lack of goals is a cause for concern.

They came close on 11 minutes when striker Jamie Cade pounced on a slip by defender Dean Beckwith to go through on goal and toe-poke agonisingly wide with on-rushing keeper Craig Mawson well beaten.

Simon Wormull went even closer on 33 minutes when he latched onto a clever ball by Cade and curled an effort with the outside of his right foot against the far post.

Vines played with four strikers on the pitch for the last 25 minutes in an attempt to break the duck.

It included transfer-listed Danny Davidson, who made his first appearance of the season since turning down a full-time contract in the summer, in a three-pronged attack with Steve Burton and Stuart Douglas, while Cade moved to the right.

Davidson was only in the squad because Danny Ekoku was unavailable due to a mix-up with his registration at Bradford.

The 19-year-old, whose impressive performance as a second half substitute against Dagenham would have probably earned him a starting place, was still officially down as an academy player at the League One club.

It meant he should not have played in Crawley's first two games but the Conference have decided to take no action.

Vines said: "The way we played in the first half, it shows we have come on a long way from when we played Hereford last year. It is just a shame we can't score goals.

"At the moment we can't buy one. We had a couple of fantastic chances and if we had taken them and kept up our work rate we possibly would have won. I'm confident we have the right strikers here, it is just a matter of them getting one."

Another worry for Vines was how Hereford were gifted their goals. The first came on 58 minutes when Reds leftback Neil Jenkins failed to spot Ryan Green's run down the right flank.

The wingback had time to cross low from the bye-line for Ipoua to side-foot past Phil Smith from six yards.

Mkandawire sealed it eight minutes from time when he bundled the ball in from a yard out after Smith, under the challenge of Tony James, missed an attempted punched clearance.

Score: Crawley Town 0, Hereford Utd 2