Careless Crawley slumped to their first home defeat of the season after a defensive horror show condemned them to a 4-1 defeat against Conference new boys Gateshead.

After a quiet opening period the visitors went ahead after 19 minutes when Reds failed to deal with Wayne Phillips' left-wing cross and Kris Gate, breaking late into the box, bundled the ball over the line from close range.

Reds were then stunned by the concession of two penalties in the space of as many minutes.

The assistant referee spotted Chris Giles' tug on the shirt of Michael Mackay and Martin Brittain tucked away the penalty.

Brittain then sent Simon Rayner the wrong way from the spot after Simon Rusk had unnecessarily pulled down Wayne Phillips.

Boss Steve Evans made two changes at the break, bringing on Jefferson Louis and Mikey Malcolm, but it failed to spark Reds into life until the 82nd minute when Sam Rents smacked in a free kick from 30 yards.

Louis went close with two stinging drives but deep into stoppage time Giles and Rayner got into a horrible tangle trying to deal with a long ball forward and substitute Graeme Armstrong tapped in Gateshead's fourth.

Neither Evans or his assistant Paul Raynor would talk to the media after the game.