Crawley are up to third in the Blue Square premier after a 2-2 home draw with Woking.

But assistant manager Paul Raynor admitted they missed the opportunity to become runaway leaders Burton's nearest challengers.

Reds banished the memories of a sluggish first-half performance to take control with two goals in five minutes at the start of the second half.

But goalkeeper Simon Rayner, who had earlier conceded his first league goal for more than eight hours, suffered one of his lapses in concentration which always seem to be costly.

Rayner made crucial mistakes against Weymouth and Salisbury earlier in the season and yesterday he was caught in no-man’s land when Wilfred Domoruad beat Sam Rents to a long ball. Domoraud found Danny Spence and the 19-year-old side-footed into an empty net to register his first Woking goal.

Even then Crawley had opportunities to win but in the space of three minutes late on Mikey Malcolm and Jon-Paul Pittman both failed to finish off impressive approach work.

Raynor said: “Our second half performance was good after we hadn’t moved the ball quickly enough in the first half.

“At 2-1 we had them on the back foot and they were rocking but once they equalised they had something to cling on to.

“On our second-half performance we deserved to win the game but if you make silly individual errors you get punished.

“Simon has admitted he went walkabout for the goal. Sam Rents should have dealt with the situation but Simon got attracted to the ball. He made an error which has cost us although it shouldn’t have done because of the chances we created.”

Only when the replays can be viewed will we know if Rents may have been culpable for Woking’s controversial first goal after 27 minutes.

He was the only defender assistant referee Stephen Daly could possibly have thought was playing Domoraud onside after he raced clear from the halfway line onto a long punt forward by Matt Pattinson.

To howls of derision from the home crowd, the French striker scored the first goal Crawley have conceded in the league for 517 minutes.

Reds’ boss Steve Evans was incandescent with rage on the touchline and probably saved himself a big fine by sending his assistant out to face the media afterwards.

“The first goal looked blatantly offside to everyone in the ground except the linesman,” was Raynor’s diplomatic response.

With chances galore, especially in the second half, the holiday crowd were treated to an entertaining spectacle in which the visitors played their part.

Their selection was far more adventurous than the sterile 4-5-1 they had employed in the goalless draw on Boxing Day with Domoraud and Tom Denton, a poor man’s Peter Crouch but highly effective nonetheless, as lively a front pair as any seen at the Broadfield this season.

Denton gave Adam Quinn as difficult an afternoon as he has had all season while Jake Wright needed to produce three perfectly-timed tackles to thwart Domoraud, whose pace and power were a real handful when Woking counter-attacked.

Eastwood was still the busier keeper in the first half but every shot seemed to be directed straight at him and it was only after the break that Crawley played at a decent tempo with the strength and aerial ability of Steve Fletcher, an early replacement for Jamie Cook, much more of a factor.

Quinn equalised in the 47th minute when he guided a free header into the far corner after Simon Weatherstone’s corner had found him ten yards out.

Five minutes later Eastwood could only palm the ball out after Pittman had met Weatherstone’s cross with a powerful header and Malcolm got in between two defenders to stab in the loose ball.

At that stage you could only see one winner but that sloppy equaliser deflated Crawley and it was only in the last ten minutes that they roused themselves for a late onslaught. It should have earned them victory but Malcolm’s side-footer, after Pittman had expertly played Rents’ long ball into his path, rolled inches wide of the far post before Pittman volleyed over from 15 yards.

It was not all one-way traffic. Denton side-footed over from a good position as both sides tired in the closing stages.

Crawley: Rayner, Wilson, Rents, Wright, Quinn, Bulman, Weatherstone, Pinault, Cook (sub: Fletcher 25), Pittman, Malcolm. Unused subs: Douglas, Carter, Nayee, O’Neill.

Woking: Eastwood, Bunce, Quamina, Pattison, Konan (sub: Lorraine 63), Spence, Ledgister (Lambu 86), Denton (Sam-Yorke 90), Magunda, Kamara, Domoraud. Unused subs: Gindre, Marum, Lambu.