Mark Sheridan believes Crawley can "do a West Brom" by avoiding relegation against all the odds.

Crawley were hot favourites to make an instant return to division four of the British Athletics League following promotion last season as they take on clubs with far more resources.

But team manager Sheridan is confident Crawley can emulate West Brom's shock survival in the Premiership last season after finishing fourth out of eight teams in their second match at Kingston on Saturday.

That result has left Crawley fifth in the table at the halfway stage of the season, level on points with Liverpool and ahead of Nottingham and Kent.

Sheridan said: "We are the smallest club in the division without a shadow of a doubt. We have 43 athletes while clubs like Edinburgh and Liverpool have over 200.

"The next smallest club are Herne Hill but they still have twice the number of athletes we have on our roster. It does make it hard for us to compete but we have already shown we can do it.

"I would equate our situation to that of West Brom whose resources were far smaller than most of the clubs in the Premiership but managed to stay up because everyone fought so hard for each other. We have that same kind of team spirit here and hopefully we will avoid relegation too."

International pole vaulter Leigh Walker epitomised that spirit. Unable to vault due to a groin injury the Irish record holder agreed to help out in the discus and threw a lifetime best of 29.79m to win the B string event.

That performance proved crucial as Crawley finished just two points ahead of Kent and a further two points ahead of Bedford in sixth.

In Leigh's absence brother Adam - who is also an Irish international - won the pole vault with a clearance of 4.20m, Josh Lamb was second in the discus with a throw of 45.26m and Steve Gates returned after a three-year absence to record a lifetime best of 50.30m in the javelin.

The only victory on the track came from the 4x100m relay team of Chris Morgan, Matt Barclay, Chris Minn and Matt Sinclair in an impressive time of 43.62sec but there were second places for Barclay in the long jump (6.83m) and Ben McIlroy in the 400m hurdles (56.7sec).

Sheridan added: "It was an unbelievable result for us but there is still a lot of work to be done as it is very tight at the bottom.

"Rugby look to have gone already so it leaves us, Kent and Nottingham fighting it out to avoid the other relegation spot. If we get a good result in our next match in Edinburgh it will give us some breathing space going into the final match."

Crawley women's battle against relegation does not look so positive after they finished a distant last in their Southern Women's League division one match at Haringey on Saturday.

A clash with a National Young Athletes League fixture the following day meant Crawley could only field two athletes in the junior section as they collected just 84.5 points in the match to slip to 23rd in the table.

Team manager Andy Pitcairn said: "It was a disastrous result but we are only at the halfway point of the season so we've still got three more matches to get out of trouble.

"It is so important that we stay in this division and I'll be emphasising that point to the girls. I'm positive we can pull away from danger if we can get our strongest team out in the final three matches."

Horsham Blue Star boosted their hopes of a second successive promotion as they finished joint second in their home match in division two at Broadbridge Heath.

Victories for Kate Kaye in the 1,500m (4min.56.5sec), Helen Morton in the 100m hurdles (15.8sec) and Hannah James in the discus (35.09m) saw Horsham finish level on points with Wycombe Phoenix behind match winners South London. There were also personal bests from Lisa Henderson in the 200m (27.0sec) and Stephanie Downes in the pole vault (2.50m).

In the junior section, Vicky True won the javelin (21.20m) and Rebecca Jennings the long jump (4.80m) while Jennings, True, Lana Brooker and Michelle Hodges teamed up to triumph in the 4x100m relay (54.1sec).

Hastings climbed two places to 14th to ease any concerns of an instant return to division three south after a battling performance at Guildford.

In a tough match Hastings finished fourth behind three teams in the top five of the table - Aldershot, Plymouth and Ashford - but still managed to rack up 151 points.