Crawley Town’s assistant manager Paul Raynor blamed a “sloppy” second-half performance for the Reds’ 2-1 Setanta Shield exit at the hands of Ebbsfleet United.

The home side appeared to be cruising through to a Southern Area final with Forest Green Rovers after Lewis Killeen had put them one up at half-time, only to be undone by headers from James Smith and Danny Slatter after the break.

Raynor said: “It was an average performance but I thought we were quite comfortable until half-time but you can’t afford to defend the way we did.

“Chris Giles lost his man for their first goal and we could have done better with the second. You just can’t make those mistakes against a good side like Ebbsfleet. We were sloppy in the second half.”

After a quiet start to the game, the Reds broke the deadlock after half an hour. A mazy run by Michael Malcolm ended with the former Weymouth striker cutting the ball back to Killeen, whose shot dribbled home under Sam Mott in the Ebbsfleet goal.

However, after the break the visitor’s from Kent fought back. Luis Cumber went close on two occasions before Smith nodded home from a corner.

Jamie Cook was brought on by Steve Evans and almost immediately made an impact.

He was dragged down by Dean Pooley and the referee awarded a free-kick and a yellow card when many expected a red. The free-kick was driven into the wall by Sam Rents.

Despite Crawley pressing it was Ebbsfleet who found the deciding goal. The visitors broke down the right and Slatter nodded home at the far post to seal his side’s place in the next round.

Crawley’s miserable evening was compounded when Thomas Pinault was stretchered off with a nasty looking ankle injury.

Crawley: Rayner, Rents, Giles (c), Forrest, Bulman, Pinault (Weatherstone 90), Killeen (Cook 78), Wilson, Rankin, Quinn, Malcolm. Unused subs: Gaia, Nayee, Shaw.

Ebbsfleet Utd: Mott, Pooley, Shakes, Slatter, Smith, McCarthy (c), Henry, Judge (Cole 65), Cumber, Purcell, West. Unused subs: Callender, Turbine, Springett, French.