Crawley boss Steve Evans praised his side’s defensive resilience after they stretched their unbeaten run to four games with a hard-fought draw at Kingsmeadow.

Reds led through Jefferson Louis’s first-half free-kick until the 76th minute when Danny Kedwell headed a deserved equaliser for the Dons.

Evans said: “We didn’t play well by any stretch of the imagination but sometimes in the Conference you have to dig in and show a fantastic work ethic and we did that.

“We lacked a lot of quality and if we had taken the chances we had at the end it would have been harsh. We have underperformed and come away with a share of the spoils – normally when that happens we get beat so it’s a good point.

“Simon Rayner was commanding and the two centre-halves in front of him, Adam Quinn and Karl Broadhurst were quite awesome.”

Coventry boss Chris Coleman was among the crowd although there cannot have been too many performances which would have caught his eye in the first half hour.

Both sides treated the ball like a hot potato and although the pitch looked superb it was also rock hard and the bouncing ball was difficult to control.

The home side’s main threat came through top scorer Kedwell and he forced Rayner to parry away his right-foot shot after the Dons’ striker had outpaced Quinn.

Charles Ademeno had failed to recover from a twisted knee so Louis partnered Calum Willock up front with Mikey Malcolm providing the width on the right-hand side with Kieran Djilali also sidelined by injury.

But during some scrappy early exchanges it was Dons who looked more likely to break the deadlock.

With such little quality in the final third at both ends it always seemed likely that the deadlock would be broken from a set piece and Reds profited seven minutes before half-time.

Glenn Wilson was sent spinning by Paul Lorraine’s challenge 20 yards out in a central position and Dons’ keeper James Pullen clearly anticipated that Sam Rents would curl one with his left foot. Instead Rents left it for Louis to strike a low shot with his right-foot through a flimsy four-man wall and past Pullen for his third goal of the campaign. It was only Crawley’s second goal away from home so far this season.

There was a predictably furious response from the hosts at the start of the second half and Rayner made a superb save on 55 minutes when Lewis Taylor cut in from the left and unleashed a right-foot shot which was heading for the top corner until the keeper stuck out a left-hand to divert it round the post.

As Dons built up a head of steam Rayner was relieved to see a shot from Simon Hatton fly the other side of his right-hand post.

Crawley found it hard to relieve the pressure although their front two linked up on the hour when Louis found Willock whose left-foot shot was not far away.

Wimbledon should have drawn level on 68 minutes when Luke Garrad’s pass found Hatton in space on the left-hand side of the box but with only Rayner to beat he opted for power and his shot clipped the top of the bar.

The home side appeared to have run out of ideas but 14 minutes from time they deservedly drew level. Chris Hussey’s cross from the left found Kedwell at the far post and his powerful header bounced down and past the helpless Rayner.

The Dons pressed but in the last five minutes Reds nearly won it. First substitute Barry Cogan forced Pullen to save his left-foot shot and then Danny Forrest directed his effort over from close range.

AFC Wimbledon: Pullen, Adjel, Lorraine, Johnson, Hussey; Gregory, Hatton, Taylor (sub Montague 69); Garrad (sub Duncan 69), Kedwell, Moore. Subs not used: Inns, Brown, Main.

Crawley: Rayner; Rusk, Rents, Quinn, Broadhurst; Malcolm (sub Forrest 60), Pinault, Wilson, Carruthers; Louis (sub Hutchinson 90), Willock (sub Cogan 71). Subs not used: Hutchinson, Killeen, Jordan.

Referee: Brendan Malone (Salisbury).

Attendance: 3,408.