Crawley suffered a fifth successive away defeat to remain rooted to the foot of the League One table.

Reds were unlucky not to take the lead at Chesterfield when Izale McLeod had a goal harshly ruled by referee Stuart Attwell.

Chesterfield made the most of that let-off, however, as top scorer Eoin Doyle gave them the lead after 34 minutes before wrapping up the points with two quickfire goals after the interval.

Jay O’Shea fired home from the edge of the area to make it 2-0 with Doyle scoring his 24th of the season less than two minutes later.

Crawley have now gone 15 games without a win and have picked up just two points from their last eight outings.

They remain one point behind Yeovil at the bottom of the table and are five points adrift of safety ahead of the visit of fourth-place Preston on Saturday.

Chesterfield dominated the first half but it was Crawley who felt they should have taken the lead after 17 minutes.

Tommy Lee fumbled a corner from Jimmy Smith to present Izale McLeod with a tap-in but referee Stuart Attwell blew for a foul on the keeper.

Reds went close again in the 28th minute when a beautifully flighted free kick from Anthony Wordsworth picked out the run of Smith but his header clipped the top of the bar with Lee stranded.

Chesterfield had started a little slowly but clicked into gear after half an hour.

Armand Gnanduillet latched on to a ball over the top to volley past Lewis Price only for an offside flag to cut his celebrations short.

The giant Gnanduillet was causing plenty of problems for the Crawley defence and it was his header which put Doyle away to open the scoring in the 34th minute.

Chesterfield’s top scorer was allowed to cut into the box from the left and, despite being surrounded by two defenders, fired a low shot past Price.

The hosts almost doubled their advantage just before the interval when Chesterfield opened them up down the left once again.

Daniel Jones got to the byline and his low cross seemed destined for Gnanduillet at the far post until Price got a vital touch to deflect it to safety.

That kept Reds in the game but Chesterfield snuffed out their hopes with two quickfire goals soon after the interval.

O’Shea made it 2-0 as he was allowed to cut in from the right to curl a fine shot inside a post from 20 yards before Doyle capitalised on some hesitant defending from Darren Ward to volley home his second of the night – and 24th of the season – from close range.

Saunders reacted by bringing on Dean Morgan and Bobson Bawling for Jimmy Smith and Marvin Elliott and switching to a 3-4-3 formation.

Morgan very nearly scored with his first touch with a clever sidefoot from Lewis Young’s low cross but Lee reacted well to kick it away.

Doyle should have completed his hat-trick when he shot wide after being put clean through while Gnanduillet flashed another effort across the face of goal.

Price also had to kick away a fierce effort from substitute Drew Talbot to prevent an even more emphatic defeat.

Chesterfield (4-4-2): Lee; Darikwa (Talbot, 81), Hird, Raglan, Jones; O’Shea (Gardner, 84), Morsy (Humphreys, 62), Ryan, Clucas; Gnanduillet, Doyle. Subs not used: Wright, Evatt, Banks, Dieseruvwe.

Crawley (4-4-1): Price; Oyebanjo, Ward, Walsh, Dickson; Young, Smith (Morgan, 66), Elliott (Bawling, 66), Edwards; Wordsworth; McLeod (Harrold, 75). Subs not used: Dutton, Bradley, Tomlin, Anderson