Crawley Town suffered a fifth consecutive away defeat as they went down 2-1 at struggling Yeovil Town.

Substitutes Ryan Bird and Tahvon Campbell put the Glovers in control with goals in the second half before Lee Barnard pulled one back for Reds with seven minutes to go.

Crawley could have no complaints about the result which saw them slip to 16th in League Two while Yeovil climbed to third from bottom.

The first half was an almost completely forgettable affair.

Yeovil were the better of two poor sides as Crawley seemed content to allow the hosts to dominate the possession without posing any kind of threat on the break.

Despite camping inside the Crawley half Yeovil struggled to break down a well organised five-man defence.

Francios Zoko had the best chance for the Glovers but was unable to get enough on his header with Callum Preston making a good save.

The game opened up more after the break with Preston saving from Shaun Jeffers and then Artur Krysiak keeping out a Matt Harrold header.

Yeovil boss Darren Way made a double substitution in the 56th minute and it proved pivotal as both men found the net.

Bird had only been on the pitch for four minutes when he reacted quickest to stab home from eight yards after a header had skimmed off Jon Ashton’s head into his own area.

Campbell almost doubled the lead when his header was superbly touched onto the bar by Preston.

The West Brom loanee did find the net two minutes later when he was allowed to cut in from the left to curl a fine shot into the top corner from 20 yards.

Reds gave themselves hope when Barnard’s looping back header embarrassed Krysiak but they were unable to find an equaliser in the final seven minutes.

Yeovil thought they had a penalty in the 90th minute to make the game safe when Sonny Bradley brought down Bird only for referee Chris Kavanagh to overturn his original decision and award a free kick on the edge of the area.