Jamie Ashdown was guilty of two costly blunders as Crawley slumped to a 4-1 home defeat to Peterborough United.

Ashdown flapped at a cross to gift Michael Smith an equaliser after Izale McLeod had given Reds the lead in only the second minute.

Christian Burgess gave the visitors a deserved lead five minutes before the interval when he headed home from a corner with Reds still bemoaning the fact they had a strong penalty appeal waved away.

Peterborough extended their lead early in the second half when Ashdown’s attempted pass was intercepted by Marcus Maddison who rolled the ball back past the red-faced keeper.

Conor Washington made it 4-1 two minutes later and Peterborough could have piled on the misery for Reds but for a couple of decent stops by Ashdown.

The result lifted Peterborough to second in League One while Crawley remain 14th.

The afternoon had started so well for Crawley, too, as they took the lead inside two minutes.

It was the simplest of goals, too, as Gavin Tomlin rolled the ball into the path of McLeod who slotted it under the advancing Ben Alnwick.

Peterborough responded by forcing a flurry of corners and the pressure told in the 11th minute.

Jamie Ashdown spilled a cross from Joe Newell and although he recovered to block Jermaine Anderson’s shot the ball found its way to Smith who blasted over the head of Mat Sadler on the line and into the roof of the net.

Reds lost top scorer McLeod to a knee injury in the 23rd minute and his replacement, Matt Harrold, began to cause real problems in the Posh defence.

He headed down a cross from Marvin Elliott to put an overhead kick wide and then teed up Dean Leacock for a volley which Alnwick tipped over the bar.

Harrold thought he should have had a penalty in the 33rd minute when he looked to have been brought down in the area by Alnwick.

Referee Mike Bull had his view blocked while the linesman kept his flag down and that proved a pivotal moment as Posh took the lead five minutes before the interval.

Peterborough made their tenth corner of the half tell as Burgess rose highest to meet Jon Taylor’s cross and head past Ashdown via a deflection.

Ashdown redeemed his earlier error by making a good low save from Taylor just before the interval as Peterborough began to dominate the game.

The visitors took a stranglehold on the game with two goals in the space of two minutes early in the second half.

The first came courtesy of another howler from Ashdown as his attempted pass went straight to Maddison who cheekily slotted the ball through the goalkeeper’s legs.

The Reds keeper was picking the ball out of his net again almost immediately as Washington wriggled free of his marker to fire a low shot inside the far post.

Ashdown did make partial amends with saves from Washington and Joe Newell as Peterborough threatened to dish out an even heavier beating.