Former loan striker Shaun Miller came back to haunt Crawley Town as they missed out on back-to-back wins for the first time since October.

Matt Harrold had fired Reds into the lead against Morecambe eight minutes after the interval but Miller equalised with seven minutes to go.

It extended Crawley’s unbeaten run at home to three games but boss Mark Yates will view it as an opportunity missed against a limited Shrimpers side.

The point kept Reds in 16th place in League Two ahead of next Saturday’s trip to in-form Luton Town.

Yates stuck with the same team which had cruised to a 2-0 victory over Newport County on Tuesday night.

If he was hoping for a repeat performance he was to be sorely disappointed in a dreadful opening 45 minutes.

Neither side were able to find any rhythm and the spectacle was not helped by overly-fussy refereeing by Iain Williamson.

Visiting goalkeeper Barry Roche was only called into action twice to make regulation saves from distance from Lanre Oyebanjo and Lyle Della-Verde while at the other end Paul Jones pushed out a 22-yard effort from Luke Conlan.

The game was in desperate need of a goal and it arrived eight minutes after the interval.

It summed up the quality of the match as Della-Verde’s scuffed shot was only hacked straight to Harrold by a defender and the Reds striker fired a low effort past Roche from 12 yards.

The hope that a goal would liven up the contest proved unfounded until Morecambe rallied in the final ten minutes.

The Shrimpers had been impotent throughout but levelled when a corner fell to Miller in the area and he was allowed to turn and fire a low shot past Jones.