Boss John Gregory admitted Crawley contributed to their own downfall as they were thumped at home by Peterborough United.

Reds led through Izale McLeod after just two minutes but two glaring errors from Jamie Ashdown allowed Peterborough to cruise to a 4-1 victory.

Ashdown spilled a cross which led to Michael Smith equalising and then passed straight to Marcus Maddison early in the second half who made it 3-1.

Gregory said: “The third goal killed us. The first two goals were gifts and the third was an early Christmas present.

“We have thanked Jamie many weeks for keeping us in games but he made a big mistake today and the game turned on that moment.

“At 2-1 we were enjoying our best period of the game but that knocked the stuffing out of us. It changed the whole complexion of the game.

“You could visibly see our players’ body language really drop and we didn’t have time to recover before they made it 4-1.

“After that it was a question of hanging in there and getting some pride back but there is no question we contributed to our own downfall.”

McLeod limped off midway through the first half with a knee injury but Gregory is confident it is not a serious problem.

He added: “He jarred his knee and it was uncomfortable for him so our medical team thought it was best to bring him off. I think he’ll be fine to be back in training on Tuesday.”