Crawley manager Francis Vines today set his sights on winning the Sussex Senior Cup.

Reds booked a place in the third round with a comfortable win at East Grinstead Town last night with goals from Allan Tait (two), Neil Jenkins, Rob Traynor and Dan Platel.

In the past, managers of the bigger clubs in the county have been accused of devaluing the competition by fielding under-strength sides.

Vines could be forgiven for doing the same with his side flying high in the Conference. But instead, he wants success in a cup he won two years ago and proved it by playing a full-strength side against the County Leaguers.

He said: "It is a cup I want to win and we have a good enough squad to do it.

"I want to do well in every competition, even if it was an egg cup I would want to win it.

"We enjoyed winning it a couple of seasons ago and regardless of what is happening in the league I want to take it home again."

For Grinstead, the game was not about the result. It was the first time they had played a Conference side in a competitive game in their 114-year history and the crowd of 867 would have earned much-needed revenue for a club which averages gates of little more than 100.

Manager Bob Smith said: "I'm really proud of the players and I thought they did themselves justice. I had no argument about the result because I thought it was fair on the balance of the game but I was disappointed we didn't score.

"We had the chances and didn't take them and it would have been nice to give them more of a game. But I can't complain with the effort of my team and, hopefully, we can take what we have learnt into our league games."

Although there was never a doubt that Reds would win, it was evident from the early stages that the conditions were a culture shock for some of their players.

They, quite literally, took time to find their feet on the bumpy and heavily sanded pitch, which allowed Grinstead to cause some panic in the Crawley defence with swift counter-attacks.

However, as expected, it was always a case of when rather than if Reds would score.

The deadlock was eventually broken on 31 minutes when Dan Marney's centre bobbled across the face of goal to Jenkins, who composed himself before giving keeper Dave Tidy little chance with a powerful volley.

Grinstead could have easily gone level before half-time. Top scorer Kris Trevor outpaced Kevin Hemsley to go clear on goal only to have his attempted finish well saved by the diving Andy Little.

They went even closer on the stroke of the interval after Kevin Wright had forced Little into a full-length stop following a 50-yard run. The rebound fell to Adam Dart, who was unlucky to see his stretching shothit the side netting.

Fittingly, it was substitute Tait who extended the lead with two goals in as many minutes just before the hour mark.

Tait, who had replaced Marney at half-time, played in the youth team at Grinstead before making two first team appearances and lives within a mile of the ground.

But there was little sympathy for his home town club in the way he dispatched his goals, first slotting it from close range and then beating Tidy with a neat finish from just inside the angle of the penalty area.

Traynor scored the fourth on 76 minutes with a low drive from outside the box and fellow substitute Platel completed the scoring a minute later.