Crawley missed out on the chance to go second in League One as they suffered only their second defeat in eight league games at Coventry City.

The Sky Blues led 2-0 at half-time against the run of play and despite pulling a goal back through Billy Clarke eventually lost 3-1 at the Ricoh Arena.

John Fleck had given Coventry the lead in the ninth minute when his shot from 20 yards caught Paul Jones by surprise.

Crawley dominated the rest of the half but the closest they came to an equaliser was when Jon Murphy twice saved from Clarke.

Coventry doubled their lead deep into injury time when a cross-shot from Fleck found David McGoldrick totally unmarked to slot home at the far post.

Reds halved the deficit ten minutes after the restart when Clarke drove home his fourth goal in as many games from the edge of the area.

McGoldrick restored the two-goal cushion ten minutes later though when he looped a shot over Jones from the edge of the area.

Clarke came within inches of dragging Reds back into the game again with 13 minutes to go when his shot curled agonisingly wide after taking a flick off a defender.