Simon Walton’s late penalty earned Crawley Town a third successive home win against York City.

Walton converted from the spot for the second time in as many games after Sonny Bradley went down in the area in the 86th minute.

The decision looked slightly harsh on York but the visitors had enough chances before then to wrap up the points.

Vadaine Oliver missed two gilt-edged opportunities while Bryn Morris also failed to hit the target when clean through.

The result – a fifth win in their last seven League Two outings - temporarily lifted Crawley to 14th in the League Two table ahead of the 3pm kick-offs.

The early kick-off seemed to catch defences cold with both sides carving out excellent chances within the opening 90 seconds.

Rhys Murphy could have scored for the fourth game in a row when he glanced a header wide from Mitch Hancox’s cross with 20 seconds on the clock.

At the other end former Reds striker Emile Sinclair’s low cross picked out Vadaine Oliver who missed the target from six yards.

Oliver looked a real livewire and his clever ball put Bryn Morris clean through only for the York midfielder to drag his shot wide.

The French striker then met a corner with a flying volley which Darryl Flahavan did well to block with his legs.

Crawley also posed a threat with Murphy having a shot deflected wide and Matt Harrold seeing a goal-bound shot blocked by a defender with Jimmy Smith volleyed straight at goalkeeper Scott Flinders.

While that was a straight forward stop the former Albion loanee produced a sensational save to deny Shamir Fenelon his first Reds game 12 minutes into the second half.

Smith nodded down a deep cross from Gwion Edwards and Fenelon unleashed a ferocious volley from ten yards which Flinders turned over.

Flinders was also quick off his line to deny Fenelon again with eight minutes to go while at the other end Oliver wastefully headed over from Marvin McCoy’s cross.

The breakthrough came with five minutes to go when Eddie Nolan was adjudged to have brought down Sonny Bradley as York attempted to clear a corner.

There were few appeals from the Crawley players but referee Charles Breakspear pointed to the spot and Walton made no mistake from 12 yards.