Steve Evans wondered what a certain other fiery manager would have thought about the controversial moment which played a big part in Crawley's defeat at the Marston's Arene on Saturday.

Reds were trailing by two goals but were stretching Vics to breaking point when Evans was left tearing his hair out on the sidelines in the 68th minute, Mustapha Carayol had just been presented with a great chance by John-Paul Pittman but fired his shot wide of a gaping goal.

Then he and Dannie Bulman worked the ball to Kevin James, whose 15 -yard shot crashed down off the underside of the crossbar.

James threw up his arms in celebration and the Vics defenders froze, until they suddenly realised referee Dave Webb had not given a goal.

An exasperated Evans said: "It was over the line by at least 18 inches.

"Kevin knew it was a goal and so did the Northwich players. They all stopped playing and that showed it.

"I think the guy who cleared it was leaning on the net at the time! It was a shocking decision and put us under a lot of pressure.

"Sir Alex Ferguson has a lot to say about referees in the Premier League. What would he have said had he been at Northwich? What would he have done after a decision like that?

"Mistakes are just as important at our level as his and that was a terrible error.

"But what happens? Surely these people are assessed and something done.

"We must have had 75 per cent of the play but you cannot legislate for mistakes by the ref or his assistant."

The first half was dire, with Crawley too eager to get the ball forward quickly, though Northwich were never comfortable with the pace they set.

There was little constructive play and the goalkeepers were good enough to keep the scores level at the break.

Ashley Bayes saved well from Lee Steele and did even better to deny Ryan Brown, while Scott Tynan stopped a Bulman free kick at the base of a post.

Centre backs Brad Thomas and Kieran Murphy had found the off-the-ball runs of Steele and Darryn Stamp difficult to keep track of and the Vics strikers punished that sloppiness with two quickfire goals early in the second half.

First the unmarked Stamp turned home Jamie Mullan's low cross and then the especially elusive Steele dodged the big men and held off Jamie Stevens to beat Bayes with a shot into the same corner of the net.

Ironically, Crawley played their best football after going two down.

Defender Mike Welch flung himself horizontal to stop a shot from Carayol, who then wasted Pittman's run and cross from the right flank.

Then came the moment that perplexed James, Evans and most of the crowd and afterwards Crawley could not quite find the same momentum.

Evans switched to three at the back for the last ten minutes but somehow the chance of the game producing another goal had disappeared.

The Reds boss added: "Two lads switched off and we conceded two goals. Otherwise we played well, passed the ball well and showed a lot of energy up front.

"If you base it on chances I think we should have won the game but the game is based on putting the ball in the net.

"We lacked that bit of cutting edge and we were not good enough over the 90 minutes."

Northwhich: Tynan; Meadowcroft, Welch, Belle; Byrne (Crowell 71), Carr (Mullan 46), Wilson, Byrom, Brown; Stamp, Steele (Burns 87) Subs not used: Bowler, Horrocks.

Crawley: Bayes; Wilson, Thomas, Murphy (Blackburn 82), Stevens; Bulman, Thompson, Pinault Carayol; James, Pittman. Subs not used: Allen, Dutton-Black, Joseph-Dubois, Krause.

Were you at the game on Saturday? Was the ball over the line?