Crawley twice came from behind to grab another vital win in their quest for League One survival.

Centre-back Richard Wood headed a 69th-minute winner as the Reds made it back-to-back victories with a 3-2 success at Port Vale.

It followed a similar result at Colchester on Saturday and has given Dean Saunders’ men real momentum in their battle to beat the drop.

With Leyton Orient – Saturday’s opponents – drawing at home to Barnsley, Crawley are now up to fourth from bottom.

The Reds found themselves behind after just poor minutes when Sonny Bradley failed to properly clear a corner and Tom Pope fired goalwards into the path of Louis Dodds who swivelled to fire past a helpless Lewis Price.

It could have been 2-0 on nine minutes when Michael O’Connor led a counter-attack before cutting the ball inside for Colin Daniel to rifle narrowly over the bar.

Despite seeing plenty of the ball, Crawley were giving away possession far too cheaply and they were almost punished again on 32 minutes when Ryan McGivern got in behind the defence but his volley was beaten away by Price.

However, driven on by Lee Fowler, they began to threaten and Izale McLeod had a shot deflected behind before Anthony Wordsworth drew them level on 43 minutes with a shot which took a big deflection to wrong-foot goalkeeper Chris Neal.

Parity, though, lasted just two minutes as Mark Marshall fed Dodds in the box and he fired low into the far corner to make it 2-1 on the stroke of half-time.

Crawley were back level ten minutes into the second half when Wood flicked on a Wordsworth free-kick and McLeod headed home his 17th goal of the season.

It got even better for the Reds on 69 minutes when they went ahead as Wood met Wordsworth’s corner from the right with a powerful header which rippled the net.

Crawley: Price; Young, Wood, Ward, Bradley; Tomlin (sub Elliott 87), Fowler, Wordsworth, Dickson; Pogba (sub Morgan 64); McLeod (sub Smith 90). Subs not used: Bawling, Anderson, Edwards, Jensen.

Port Vale: Neal; Yates, Veseli, Robertson, McGivern; Marshall, O’Connor, Brown (sub O’Sullivan 77), Daniel (sub Williamson 66); Dodds; Pope (sub Campion 77). Subs not used: Lloyd, Birchall, Duffy, Johnson.