Striker Steve Burton is refusing to rule out Crawley as Conference play-off contenders.

Burton scored twice in the last four minutes to help Reds to their first win under boss John Hollins against fellow strugglers Tamworth at the Broadfield Stadium.

Victory lifted Crawley one place to 18th, 15 points off the playoff zone.

Most outsiders would assusme Reds should be happy just to avoid relegation after a terrible start to the season.

But Burton says the dreaded drop is not an issue for the players and reckons their pre-season aim of a top five-finish is not completely out of the question with the new lease of life brought to the club by Hollins He said: "It has been so frustrating because other managers and players have been saying they can't believe we are where we are. "We have been underperforming but the play-offs are in sight.

"We have had a bad run of results but you have to be profes-sional about it.

"You can't get into the relegation mentality, you have to keep focussing on where you want to go.

"Where you are after Christmas is normally where you are going to finish, so we are looking to build on this result and do well in the five or six games we have coming up and get ourselves up where we should be, in the top half of the table."

Few could argue with that because man-for-man Crawley should be at least a top ten side.

They have plenty of players with impressive pedigrees who would walk into most Conference sides.

During his time at Ipswich, Burton was once the strike partner and equal of Darren Bent, who has gone on to score goals in the Premiership with Charlton and earn an England call-up.

Daryl Clare is arguably the best goalscorer outside the Football League and winger Tony Scully played in the Championship with Manchester City.

The list goes on but, as former manager Francis Vines will testify, getting them to gel has not been easy.

Hollins is slowly beginning to do that, particularly in defence where Crawley look solid, but there is still work to do.

Despite what the scoreline suggests, the biggest problem against Tamworth was in attack when the final ball into the box was dreadful for the majority of the game.

They only got it right twice.

The first, from a Ben Judge cross, saw Burton force keeper Scott Bevan into a save and the second resulted in Dave Woozley breaking the deadlock 11 minutes from time.

Scully curled a perfect cross following a short corner and Woozley glanced a header into the bottom corner to score his first goal for Reds.

Hollins said: "We are very pleased with the result and what I do like is the zero at the other end.

"It was a tough non-stop game and I was pleased we never stopped trying to get the ball down and playing.

"Our quality of crosses was poor and that is what we have to work on a lot more because we do get in good positions.

"The players who get in those positions have got the quality, they are just not doing what I want at the moment."

Although the margin of victory flattered Reds, there was no doubt they deserved the points.

Tamworth were awful and barely troubled Crawley's back four, which included Sami El-Abd.

The young leftback, brother of Albion's Adam, made his first league start and did more than enough to justify his selection ahead of Sacha Opinel, before going off on the hour.

The visitors only threatened twice, both coming from the head of giant defender Matt Redmile.

The big stopper, who looked two stone overweight, nodded against the outside of a post from a free-kick after 26 minutes.

He then found the net early in the second half with another header from a set-piece but the goal was ruled out for a push on Judge.

Redmile let his frustrations get the better of him after the final whistle when he was sent off for something he said to an assistant, who he blamed for Burton's late double.

Tamworth thought both goals were offside but only his first was questionable. Burton raced clear from a Clare flick four minutes from time and slotted through Bevan's legs.

He then did it again in injury time with Dave Bampton definitely playing him on and produced another cool finish into the bottom corner.

Lambs player-boss Mark Cooper was furious with the referee and not just for the way the game ended.

He claimed the official swore at him during the game and is considering taking the matter further.