Rhys Murphy scored twice in the space of 56 seconds to earn Crawley Town a record-equalling fourth successive league win against Bristol Rovers.

Murphy gave Reds the lead after just nine minutes and stunned Rovers when he curled home a stunning effort almost straight from the restart.

The visitors pulled one back through Matty Taylor from the penalty spot with three minutes to go but Crawley held on to continue their impressive run in League Two.

It was their sixth win in the last nine league games and equalled the record for consecutive home wins set by Steve Evans’ side the last time Crawley were in League Two four years ago.

The result lifted Reds to 14th spot in the table and they can eclipse the previous record when they host Northampton Town on Tuesday night.

Crawley played into a strong wind in the first half but made light work of it as they raced into a 2-0 lead after ten minutes.

Matt Harrold and Roarie Deacon had already squandered decent chances when Murphy stunned Rovers with two goals in the space of 56 seconds.

The first was a scrappy affair with Deacon getting a toe to a low cross to find Murphy who stabbed home from close range.

Murphy’s second was right out of the top draw, however, as he curled a dipping shot over Lee Nicholls from 25 yards.

Having gone 2-0, Reds seemed to take their foot off the gas which allowed Rovers to take control of the game.

Tom Parkes had an effort cleared off the line from a corner while Billy Bodin fired narrowly wide from 12 yards.

Despite being the slightly better team in the opening 45 minutes Rovers could have found themselves 3-0 down at half-time when Josh Yorwerth’s header from a Simon Walton corner grazed the bar.

Reds retreated further into their shells into the second half as they defended deep and invited Rovers to break them down.

It was a risky policy which almost backfired when Billy Bodin’s deflected shot struck an upright and rebounded fortunately into the arms of Darryl Flahavan.

The pressure eventually told with three minutes to go when the otherwise excellent Mitch Hancox brought down Bodin in the area and Matty Taylor fired home from the spot.

Rovers threw the kitchen sink at Reds in search of an equaliser but Mark Yates’ men hung on.