MIKEY Malcolm is ready to commit his long-term future to Crawley after his two goals kept Reds in play-off contention.

The Londoner’s loan spell is due to end on January 1 but both Malcolm and his manager, Steve Evans, want it to become a permanent move.

He said: “I haven’t discussed anything with the manager yet but I want to stay.

“I’ve settled in now and I’m starting to show the fans what I can do. The other boys pick on me with their banter but it’s a great dressing room and we’ve got a chance of doing something this season.”

Malcolm flattered to deceive when he arrived from Weymouth at the start of November but Evans and the Crawley faithful are now beginning to see the best of his mercurial talent.

Against a Kidderminster side who played for all but six minutes with ten men, Malcolm broke the deadlock with a neat finish on the half hour.

His pace always gave the overworked visitors’ defence a problem and he capped a great performance with a stunning free-kick midway through the second half.

Simon Weatherstone normally takes the set-pieces and Jamie Cook was also lining up a pot at goal when Kidderminster’s Luke Jones brought down Weatherstone 25 yards out in a central position.

But Malcolm, who had spent part of the warm-up working on dead-ball delivery, pushed them aside to curl his shot wide of a five-man defensive wall and into the top left-hand corner of Adam Bartlett’s goal.

“I don’t think I have ever scored a better one,” said Malcolm. “Two or three of us fancied it but the gaffer told me to take it and I’m glad I did.

“We were lucky that they had their centre-half sent off so early because it gave us lots of space to play. Gaps opened up but we were patient and broke them down.”

For a side who had won eight of their last nine games, Kidderminster showed a surprising lack of ambition after captain Creighton saw red for pulling down Jamie Cook as the last defender.

They withdrew playmaker Martin Brittain and sat back, happy to funnell men behind the ball at the first hint of danger and try and hit Crawley on the break through the pace of Justin Richards and Matt Barnes-Homer, who have 16 league goals between them.

Crawley had to be patient but they utilised the pace of Malcolm, who gave his marker Brian Smikle a torrid time, and the vision of Thomas Pinault to unlock a massed defence.

The breakthrough came when Lewis Killeen slipped a pass between Harriers’ two central defenders on the half hour and Malcolm brushed off Smikle’s challenge to beat Bartlett from close range.

Kidderminster did not show a lot more ambition in the second half although Glenn Wilson did redeem himself for conceding a free-kick on the edge of the box when he deflected Richards’ goalbound effort.

It was the only moment of real concern for goalkeeper Simon Rayner and when Malcolm produced his party piece – with celebration to match – Crawley had secured another impressive home win over one of the top sides following earlier victories over Mansfield, who were third when they arrived in September, and Kettering.

Malcolm, Pinault and Pittman had further opportunities to put an extra sheen on the scoreline and Evans, like the majority of the crowd, was happy with what he saw.

“Kidderminster are the best side I have seen this season but we tore them apart,” said Evans.

“The guy who got sent off deserved to go but we could have been five up at half-time and the second half was as comfortable as it's going to be at this level against a good team.

“When we play like that we are the best team in this league. Our problem is that we don’t play like that often enough.

“We may lack the consistency to be in the play-offs at the end of the season but we are there on Christmas Day which is the first objective.”

Evans will continue to play down his side’s chances of a top five finish but Reds have collected ten points from their last four games and have three winnable games coming up over Christmas.

“I think 99% of the people outside our dressing room didn’t expect us to be in the top five going into Christmas,” he added. “But we are and we did it playing some fantastic football on Saturday.”

Crawley: Rayner, Wilson, Wright (sub: Rents 90), Quinn, Giles, Pinault, Weatherstone, Bulman, Killeen (sub: Forrest 90), Cook (sub: Pittman 80), Malcolm. Unused subs: Fletcher, Carter.

Yellow card: Wright (86) Kidderminster: Bartlett, Lowe, Ferrell, Riley, Creighton, Bennett, Penn, Smikle (sub: McDermott 73), Brittain (Jones 8), Barnes-Homer (Moore 79), Richards. Unused subs: Knights, Coleman.

Red card: Creighton (professional foul).

Yellow cards: Barnes-Homer (foul), Ferrell (foul), Moore (foul), Referee: Steve Creighton (Reading). What do you think?