Lee Fowler scored a late winner on his debut to earn Crawley their first victory for more than three months and lift them off the foot of the League One table.

Anthony Wordsworth had given Reds the lead in the first half but their winless run looked set to stretch to 16 games when Paul Huntington equalised in the 56th minute.

Lanre Oyebanjo hit the bar while Jimmy Smith forced Sam Johnstone into a flying save as Crawley turned up the pressure in the closing stages.

And the winner arrived with three minutes to go when new signing Fowler struck a crisp volley from the edge of the area after a corner had only been half cleared.

The result lifted Reds above Yeovil and Leyton Orient at the foot of the table while they are now only two points adrift of safety ahead of their crucial trip to Yeovil next weekend Preston started the game brightly as they played the ball around with the type of confidence which belied a run of six games without a win.

The visitors should have took the lead after 12 minutes when a long diagonal ball from Paul Gallagher was played into the path of Josh Brownhill by Kyel Reid. Brownhill had time to pick his spot from ten yards out but his sidefoot effort lacked power and Lewis Price was able to get down to make a good save.

Reds then went up the other end and scored from what was their very first attack. Lewis Young whipped in an excellent ball from the right and Wordsworth got ahead of his marker to bundle the ball home from close range.

The goal seemed to knock Preston out of their stride a little bit as their play lacked the fluency of the opening 15 minutes.

They did create one more chance before half-time as Reid surged forward from halfway but his shot took a slight deflection into the grateful arms of Price.

Preston brought on Neil Kilkenny for John Welsh during the interval and instantly put Crawley under pressure from the restart.

Huntington had a header tipped over by Price while Gallagher’s deflected shot bounced narrowly wide with the on-loan Crystal Palace goalkeeper completely wrong-footed.

The equaliser came in the 56th minute and, to the frustration of boss Dean Saunders, came from a set-piece. Gallagher whipped over an inviting corner which Huntington headed home at the near post.

Rather than dent their confidence Crawley began to create some decent half-chances after being pegged back.

Marvin Elliott shot over the bar after good work from Gwion Edwards and then McLeod’s first touch let him down as he got on the end of a flick by Wordsworth.

Jimmy Smith then forced Sam Johnstone into a flying save with a well-hit free kick while Lanre Oyebanjo clipped the top of the bar with a curling effort.

It looked like Reds would have to settle for a point when McLeod’s effort was kicked away by Johnstone before Fowler struck with three minutes to go.

A corner was only cleared to the edge of the area and substitute Fowler met the falling ball with a volley which flew through a crowd of players and past the motionless Johnstone.

Crawley (4-4-1-1): Price; Oyebanjo, Walsh, Ward, Dickson; Young (Bawling, 78), Smith (Fowler, 78), Elliott, Edwards; Wordsworth; McLeod. Subs: Bradley, Morgan, Anderson, Tomlin, Dutton.

Preston (4-2-3-1): Johnstone; Woods, Clarke, Huntington, Buchanan (K. Davies, 85); Welsh (Kilkenny, 46), Brownhill (Humphrey, 77), Gallagher, Johnson, Reid; Ebanks-Blake. Subs: Stuckmann, Laird, Wiseman, King.