Izale McLeod’s hat-trick saw Crawley bounce back from their midweek humiliation at the hands of Doncaster with an emphatic victory over Barnsley at the Checkatrade.com Stadium.

McLeod gave Reds the lead against the run of play in first half injury time before scoring twice more after the break to complete a 5-1 win.

Sonny Bradley and Marvin Elliott were also on target in an extraordinary second half as Crawley scored five in the league for the first time in three and a half years.

Kane Hemmings briefly pulled it back to 3-1 but Crawley were not to be denied their biggest win since winning promotion to the Football League in 2011.

The result lifted Reds a place to 22nd in League One and they are now only two points adrift of safety.

Barnsley had lost their last six away games but appeared rejuvenated by the departure of manager Danny Wilson in midweek as they dominated the opening 45 minutes.

They forced a series of early corners and from one Lewis Price reacted well to tip a header from Mason Holgate on to the bar.

Milan Lalkovic then curled a low shot just wide from 20 yards while Conor Hourihane bent a free kick into the side-netting with Price scrambling across his goalmouth.

Crawley posed little threat in the opening 30 minutes but slowly came into the game as half-time approached.

Predictably it was McLeod who was keeping the Barnsley defence on their toes. He shot wide from the edge of the area and then went close with a spectacular overhead kick.

And it was Crawley’s leading scorer broke the deadlock in injury time. Mathias Pogba cleverly flicked a long ball into McLeod’s path and he coolly lobbed Ross Turnbull from the edge of the box.

The goal gave Reds a huge lift going into the break and they doubled their lead almost immediately after the restart.

Turnbull had to react quickly to block Lee Fowler’s free kick after it had cleared everyone in the box but the ball fell kindly for Bradley to sidefoot home.

Reds took complete control of the game in the 59th minute when Elliott headed home from a superbly delivered free kick from Fowler.

Barnsley pulled one back when substitute Kane Hemmings headed home from six yards after Reds had failed to clear their lines properly.

Reds should have restored their three goal advantage when Turnbull parried a shot from McLeod and Gavin Tomlin hit a post from two yards out.

It didn’t matter as McLeod made it 4-1 a minute later, pouncing on a defensive mistake by Lewin Nyatanga to fire inside a post from the edge of the box.

McLeod completed his hat-trick with seven minutes to go to put the home fans in dreamland.

Lewis Young was denied by Turnbull after running from the halfway line but McLeod picked up the loose ball and fired it into the top corner.