Crawley Town were on the wrong end of a smash-and-grab raid as Notts County put a dent in their impressive home form.

Reds dominated possession from start to finish against the Magpies but were sunk by a second half thunderbolt from Filip Valencic.

Valencic’s unstoppable volley in the 63rd minute to score from what was County’s only real effort on goal of the game.

Despite being in the ascendancy throughout Crawley lacked a cutting edge with an early Gavin Tomlin volley the closest they went to finding the net.

It was only Crawley’s second defeat in their last ten home games while County celebrated a first away league win since the opening day of the season under new boss Jamie Fullarton.

Crawley started strongly in the first half as they bid to maintain their excellent home form but had nothing to show for their efforts at the interval.

Gavin Tomlin went close to giving Reds the lead after just three minutes when his fierce volley from a difficult angle was tipped over by Roy Carroll.

Tomlin went close again after 20 minutes as he intercepted a poor clearance to shoot just wide from 20 yards.

The visitors struggled to keep possession during the opening 45 minutes but were well organised in defence, restricting Crawley to a handful of chances.

Lewis Young did force Carroll into another sharp save at his near post in the 31st minute with Ronan Murray clearing a Sonny Bradley header off the line from the resulting corner.

The pattern of the game continued after the break with Reds dominating without causing County too many difficulties.

Jon Ashton should have done better with a free header from eight yards which he put too close to Carroll on the hour mark and three minutes later Crawley were behind.

The goal came completely out of the blue and the quality of it was in contrast to the rest of the game.

Jon Stead headed the ball down to Valencic just outside the area and his first-time shot flew past Darryl Flahavan and into the net.

Crawley were stunned by falling behind against the run of play and despite having 27 minutes to try to find a reply were unable to carve out any clear opportunities.

New signing Chris Atkinson came off the bench for his debut but was unable to provide the creative spark that was missing as Reds slipped to 15th in League Two.