Crawley manager Steve Evans was left "baffled" by the referee after two second- half penalties condemned his side to four defeats in eight days.

Reds were a goal up when striker Pierre Joseph-Dubois was brought down in the box. The referee waved play on but later twice pointed to the spot to give Grays the win.

Evans said: "We go away absolutely baffled with the referee. How he did not give us the penalty nobody knows.

"Everyone could see it was nailed on and that would have put us 2-0 up and we would have almost certainly gone on to win the game."

Ryan Hill was handed his debut for Reds following his loan move until the end of the season from Crystal Palace.

He replaced the injured Mustapha Carayol in midfield in one of four changes from the side humiliated 4-0 by Kidderminster on Thursday.

Joseph-Dubois came in for top scorer Jamie Cook, who was dropped to the bench along with Bradley Thomas.

Kieran Murphy replaced Thomas in the heart of defence while midfielder Lee Blackburn was handed a rare start in place of the injured Glenn Wilson.

Wilson's right-back role was filled by captain Tyrone Thompson, who usually plays in the centre of midfield.

Crawley's new-look defence struggled to cope with the home side's attacking play early on.

Barry Cogan went close with a header after just 60 seconds before Danny Kedwell let Reds off the hook six minutes later.

He beat the on-rushing Ashley Bayes to a long ball and knocked it past the Crawley keeper but Murphy had sensed the danger and blocked the striker's scuffed shot on its way to goal.

The miss was not as bad as the one Jon-Paul Pittman was guilty of soon after during Crawley's first attack.

Grays' keeper Nicky Eyre inadvertently slid past the ball on the greasy surface as he tried to smother close to the right hand by-line, leaving Pittman with an open goal.

The angle was against the front-man so he delayed his shot, allowing defender Jamie Stuart time to get back and clear off the line.

It was a rare moment of pressure from the visitors in the first half as Grays continued to dominate.

Bayes was forced to make a diving parry to deny Kedwell then the same player should have done better with a shot over the bar on the half hour.

In between the two efforts Cogan beat Murphy in the air and leaped a header onto the top of the net.

Reds suffered an injury blow five minutes before the break when defender Jamie Stevens limped off after landing awkwardly and was replaced by Thomas.

But Evans' side were soon celebrating after going in front when Pittman made up for his earlier miss.

He out-paced Stuart in a counter-attack and slotted past Eyre in first-half stoppage time.

Former Reds striker Jamie Taylor, who grew up in Crawley, came on for Grays for the second half and helped create an opportunity three minutes after the restart.

He combined with Simon Downer, who crossed for Aaron O'Connor to volley over from just inside the area.

Reds had big shouts for a penalty rejected on 54 minutes when Joseph-Dubois went down under a clumsy tackle from Stuart.

It looked a foul but the referee gave the Grays' captain the benefit of the doubt, much to the disgust of the Crawley bench.

Pittman went close to adding his second a minute later with a powerful drive which flew inches over the bar.

But Grays piled on the pressure from then on and Taylor went close with a lob on 71 minutes which Bayes did well to stop.

The equaliser came four minutes later when James Krause brought down Kedwell, who converted the resulting penalty.

Kedwell then kept his cool from the spot again eight minutes from time after Murphy had pulled down O'Connor.