Crawley Town welcomed back their manager Francis Vines from his holiday in devastating style by thrashing the league leaders.

Their 4-0 drubbing of previously unbeaten Worcester City led Vines to joke: "Perhaps I should return to France all week and just come back for matches."

The Crawley boss missed the first four matches of the season but drove all Friday night from the Dordogne to take charge, after his assistant Vic Bettinelli quit to become a coach at Premiership club Fulham.

Jubilant Vines said: "I was most pleased about the game to say the least.

"We created seven chances before we scored our first goal but in a tight situation we've got to score more.

"Everything clicked and we defended well. It was a shame only 800 people were here watching the game."

Seagulls loanees Carl Wilson-Denis and Danny Marney scored all four goals which came in a glorious burst either side of half-time.

It took until the 45th minute before Marney gave Crawley the lead as he headed home their opener from a Nigel Brake cross.

Wilson-Denis swiftly made it 2-0 on the stroke of half-time.

Ben Judge lofted him an exquisite pass from which he ran the ball around goalkeeper Danny McDonnell and scored.

Wilson-Denis showed good composure in front of goal when he repeated the feat in the 49th minute.

He darted through the penalty area to run in Town's third, after the City defence had failed to deal with a header by the excellent Paul Armstrong.

Just three minutes later Kevin Hemsley had the ball in the net from Judge's high pass through but was ruled offside and the goal was disallowed.

Wilson-Denis sealed a superb hat-trick from the penalty spot after 69 minutes after Marney's shirt was pulled by City substitute Carl Heeley.

Vines said: "I have been told during the previous four games our performances have been good but the finishing should have been better.

"Today the performance was good and the finishing was adequate, but not as adequate as I'd like.

"A fair result would have been 6 or 7-0 with the chances we had."

Town handed debuts to new signings Craig Dean at leftback in place of the injured Ian Payne and Michael West, who replaced Dean after 73 minutes.

Dean, a former Manchester United youth, has come to Broadfield from Irish football.

West has played professionally in Australia.