Crawley Town rediscovered the winning habit at home with a comfortable 2-0 victory over Newport County.

An own goal from Scott Boden in the first half and a Shamir Fenelon header after the break saw Reds complete the double over Newport and secured a first home success since January 9.

A miserable St David’s Day was completed for the Welsh visitors when Medi Elito was shown a second yellow card in the closing stages.

The result was the perfect response following the woeful 2-0 defeat at Leyton Orient on Saturday and lifted them a place to 16th in League Two.

Crawley – featuring six changes from the side which went down at Brisbane Road - dominated the first half but struggled to break down a well-organised Newport defence which had conceded just one goal in their previous three games.

Gwion Edwards looked the most likely to create something and forced goalkeeper Joe Day into his first save when he kicked away the Welshman’s low shot.

Reds did get their noses in front nine minutes before the interval – thanks to a slice of luck.

Scott Boden got his head to Lyle Della-Verde’s inswinging corner but the ball looped over Day and inside the far corner.

The visitors posed virtually no threat during the opening 45 minutes with Paul Jones’ only action being to tip a misdirected cross from Mark Byrne over the bar.

Reds doubled their lead eight minutes after half-time from another Della-Verde corner. Jon Ashton headed the ball back across goal and Fenelon was in the right place to nod into the roof of the net from a couple of yards.

Newport never threatened to get back into the game and a bad night was made worse when Elito was shown a second yellow card for shoulder barging Fenelon over the advertisement hoardings.