Shamir Fenelon came off the bench to earn Crawley Town a battling point against promotion-chasing Plymouth Argyle.

Former Albion striker Fenelon scored his first goal for Reds with seven minutes to go to cancel out Ryan Brunt’s second-half header.

It was Crawley’s first draw since the end of August and their fighting spirit will have impressed the watching Ziya Eren who is expected to complete his takeover of the club next week.

Eren spent the first half among the home fans behind the goal and then walked around the touchline in a Crawley scarf with two colleagues during the interval to the directors’ box.

The pattern of the match was set right from kick-off as Crawley sat back and invited Plymouth to try to break them down.

The 3-5-2 formation became more like 5-3-2 and although Plymouth had the lion’s share of the ball they struggled to create any chances.

The openings the Pilgrims did carve out all fell to Gregg Wylde and were largely from long-range.

The midfielder’s 25 yard shot was turned around a post by Paul Jones in the fifth minute and then another effort – this time from 30 yards – had the Reds keeper at full stretch as it flew just wide.

Wylde’s best opportunity came on the stroke of half-time as he found room just inside the area only for his low strike to be saved by Jones.

Argyle brought on Reuben Reid at the interval as they went even more attacking and it brought a reward in the 57th minute.

Wylde was again heavily involved as his cross from the left picked out the unmarked Brunt who had a simple task to head home from 12 yards. Falling behind meant Reds had to change their gameplan and show a bit more ambition going forward.

Boss Mark Yates brought on striker Shamir Fenelon for midfielder Chris Atkinson and was rewarded when the former Albion forward equalised with seven minutes to go.

Roarie Deacon won a free kick near the corner flag which he sent towards the back post. Josh Yorwerth headed the ball back across goal and Fenelon reacted quickest to hook in from close range.