Crawley suffered more Broadfield Stadium blues as lowly Hinckley claimed their first away win of the season on Saturday to send the large crowd away disappointed.

This defeat in front of a bumper 1,217 attendance leaves more question marks over Crawley's Dr Martens League premier division title credentials, and those who witnessed the display will not be encouraged to make the journey to Tiverton for this weekend's FA Cup first round clash.

Manager Billy Smith brought back Ben Judge (injury) and Ernie Cooksey (suspension) with new signing Barry Moore reverting to central midfield while Stewart Holmes was dropped to the bench.

An expectant crowd must have been hoping for an easy Reds win, but Hinckley had other ideas and stunned the home side by taking a 12th minute lead when former Worcester City midfielder Leon Jackson flicked on a corner for visiting skipper Andy Penny to volley unmarked and unchallenged past keeper Andy Little.

Reds then created a number of good chances but wasted each one while a great performance from debutant keeper Tom Whittle helped keep them at bay.

Peter Fear headed Cooksey's cross straight at Whittle on 25 minutes, and then, after Dave Stevens crashed a 25-yard drive against the crossbar, Danny Hockton contrived to sky the follow-up over from just three yards out.

After the break Reds had more purpose for a while, but Hockton was denied by Whittle before Smith sent on Holmes, Kevin Hemsley and Nic McDonnell for Fear, Moore and Hockton just after the hour.

A goalmouth scramble saw Stevens and Marc Pullan somehow denied by Whittle, but Hinckley should have doubled their lead after 70 minutes when Judge's throw eluded Ellis Hooper and Wayne Dyer broke clear, only to see Little pull off a fine stop with his legs.

Little denied Jackson with another good save but three minutes into injury time Reds' misery was complete when McDonnell missed a sitter with just Whittle to beat and Hinckley broke clear, David Sadler squaring for substitute Chris Smith to fire past the onrushing Little.

Little was responsible for keeping the score down once more before the end, denying former Kingstonian striker Sadler, but by then few Crawley fans were left with their eyes on the game and serious questions will be asked after yet another failure to win in front of their home support.

Hastings United fought out a 0-0 draw away to Chippenham Town to retain their place in the top half of the premier division table.

Still missing three regulars due to injury, the visitors also lost Paul Ruddy and Danny Simmonds in the second half with knocks.

The two defences dominated throughout al-though Simmonds brought home keeper James Bittner into action on 14 minutes with a quickly taken free kick and Chris Honey fired over at the near post after a pass from Simmonds.

Martin Paul fired wired for Chippenham early on and then Steve Brown went close before United keeper Dave King did well to block a shot from Paul on the line just before the half-hour mark.

Chippenham surged forward after the break but could find no way through a solid United back line.

A cross from Charlie Griffin was deflected in to the net by United defender Tony Burt but the assistant's flag was already raised for offside.

King then came to the rescue diving to palm away Tom Gould's effort and Gary Horgan had a shot blocked.