Crawley Town failed in their bid to win for the fifth successive league game at home despite a spirited second half comeback against Northampton Town.

Reds were comprehensively outplayed in the opening 45 minutes and trailed 2-0 at the break through goals from Joel Byrom and John Joe O’Toole.

They got back into the game when Brendan Moloney was sent off for pulling down substitute Shamir Fenelon in the area with Simon Walton making it 2-1 from the spot.

But despite their numerical advantage Crawley were unable to find an equaliser as they slipped a place to 15th in the League Two table.

Crawley had made a bright start but fell behind courtesy of a debatable penalty decision in the fifth minute.

Lawson D’Ath was allowed to cut into the area from the left and fell over a dangling leg with referee Stephen Martin adjudging there had been sufficient contact to award a spot kick.

Marc Richards drove the penalty straight down the middle and although Darryl Flahavan pushed it away the ball rebounded kindly for Byrom to head home.

Reds were struggling to deal with Northampton’s fluid 4-4-1-1 formation and fell further behind in the 20th minute.

Josh Yorwerth looked to have snuffed out another incursion down the left but his toed clearance found O’Toole who hit a fierce first-time shot which flew past Flahavan from 25 yards.

It should have been 3-0 eight minutes later when Richards shot into the side-netting from a couple of yards after Flahavan had deflected a low shot from Nicky Adams into his path at the far post.

Matt Harrold wasted a glorious chance to halve the deficit early in the second half when he shot into the side netting after rounding goalkeeper Adam Smith.

Harrold was immediately replaced by Shamir Fenelon who had an instant impact as he was tugged back in the area by Moloney.

Martin had no hesitation in pointing to the spot and subsequently had no choice but to dismiss Moloney for denying a goalscoring opportunity.

Walton converted from the spot for the fourth time this season, sending Smith the wrong way, and suddenly the momentum was all with the home side.

But the Cobblers were able to stand firm with the closest Crawley came to an equaliser being a header from Josh Yorwerth which went wide and a sliding effort from Fenelon at the back post.