Coach Brian Owen admitted premier leaders Crawley were lucky to hang on for a 2-2 draw at Chelmsford City.

Despite taking a two-goal lead at half-time, Reds were happy to settle for a point.

Owen said: "I thought we played quite well in the first half with Stewart Holmes outstanding. Ben Judge thoroughly deserved his first goal for the club and at half-time we were comfortable.

"But full credit to Chelmsford. They battled well and in the end we were relatively lucky to get something out of it.

"But an away draw was still a good result, we're still top of the table and we did ourselves proud."

Reds' injury crisis worsened when central defender Marc Pullan was replaced towards the end with a suspected cartilage injury and Judge suffered a strained hamstring.

They join a casualty list which includes skipper Luke Anderson, Keith Sharman, John Ugbah and Jimmy Dack.

Crawley went in front after 19 minutes when Rob Collins headed a cross from Steve Restarick to Judge, who slotted home.

Collins scored his sixth goal in four games to make it 2-0 two minutes later. But Chelmsford pulled a goal back through Russell Williamson after 56 minutes after a Ian Cambridge ball.

On the hour Cambridge blasted a 25-yard free-kick against the Crawley crossbar and seconds later swung over a corner for Colin Wall to head in the equaliser.

Eastbourne Borough made it ten games without defeat in a goalless eastern division draw as Gavin Geddes made his debut against lowly Tonbridge Angels at Priory Lane.

Geddes had a quiet game following his moved from Worthing.

Borough boss Garry Wilson said: "Gavin is a quality player and given time his quality will shine through.

"Tonbridge battled away and made it hard for us but it is another clean sheet."

Clear cut chances were few and far between in a game in which defences were on top.

Former Eastbourne Town goalkeeper Paul Stark, making his debut for Borough in place of the injured Dean Lightwood, was rarely tested.