Crawley 2, Torquay 3.

BOSS Steve Evans believes the decision not to award Crawley a penalty was the difference between success and failure against title favourites Torquay.

But Reds really only had themselves to blame for a third consecutive defeat following the worst first half performance at Broadfield Stadium in recent memory.

Evans' side were truly appalling in every aspect for the opening 45 minutes.

They were particularly bad in a back four which included new loan signing Kieran Murphy.

Reds went into the break three down but they could not have complained had it been seven.

Torquay ripped them apart with embarrassing ease and all the talk during the interval was about how many goals the visitors would rack up.

But to their credit, Reds dragged themselves back into it in the second half and almost completed an improbable fightback.

Magno Vieira sparked the revival four minutes after the restart with a neat finish under keeper Martin Rice and an own goal from Chris Robertson, who inexplicably headed in from close range from Dannie Bulman's cross, set up a frantic finale.

It was during Crawley's late siege that Evans felt his side should have been awarded a spot-kick.

Gulls striker and scorer of the third goal, Tim Sills, handled at point-blank during a penalty box scramble following a corner.

There was no denying the ball hit his arm but East Molesey referee Darren Sheldrake deemed it unintentional and gave him the benefit of the doubt.

Evans admits Reds let themselves down in the first half but insists they would have gone on to take all the points had the penalty been given.

He said: "A few of our youngsters got caught in the first half and went to pieces and the game could have been out of sight. It could have been five or six, there was no disguising that.

"But at half-time we asked the players to put it behind them and not only did they do that but we restricted them to no chances, we got the goals and the only man in the ground who didn't see Tim Sills' handball was the referee.

"It was as blatant a handball as you will ever see. The penalty would have made it 3-3 and I think we would have then beaten them because I thought they were mentally gone as a team."

Torquay took just six minutes to expose Crawley's defensive weaknesses with the first goal.

Murphy was signed for a month from MK Dons the day before the game and had to be thrown straight into action due to an injury to centre back Glenn Wilson. The 19-year-old Republic of Ireland under-21 international looked nervous and hesitant early on and, unfortunately, he was not helped by his fellow defenders.

Lee Mansell was not picked up as he exchanged passes with Sills, raced through the defence far too easily to pick up the return ball and fired into the roof of the net.

The defending was even worse six minutes later when Murphy lost Mark Ellis at a corner, leaving the defender to nod in from three yards unmarked.

Former Reds striker Elliot Benyon and diminutive winger Danny Stevens both missed good chances, before the inevitable third came on the stoke of half-time.

Sills got above Bulman to glance home a close range header from a Stevens corner.

Evans said: "We felt we had the players to beat Torquay and the second half showed that, it was just a shame we switched off in the first half.

"Maybe had we had Glenn Wilson fit it might have been different and that is no disrespect to Kieran who did okay."

Murphy was one of five changes from the disappointing 3-0 defeat at Halifax two weeks ago, which was seen as too many by some disgruntled fans. They were not afraid to voice their opinions vocally in the direction of the bench as the third goal went in.

To some extent they had a point. Evans had to replace Wilson and was denied the services of top scorer Guy Madjo after he was called up to take part in a five-day training camp with the Cameroon national team.

But he opted to drop strikers Pierre Joseph-Dubois and Jon-Paul Pittman as well as left-back James Krause.

Of the players who came in, only Vieira and winger Mustapha Carayol did themselves justice.

Paul Watson, like Murphy, was uncharacteristically shaky and struggled to deal with Stevens.

Striker Berlin Nlome-Ndebi, who came in for Madjo to make his home debut, made no impact and was hauled off at half-time.

Evans said: "I thought Berlin was poor. He has been outstanding in training but there are a hundred million good players in training every week, you have to do it in matches.

"But it is a big ask to fill Guy Madjo's boots because, apart from the last week or two, he has been outstanding for us. We were without Madjo, Jamie Cook and Wilson and they are big players of us. It would be like Torquay being without Hargreaves, Sills and Zebrozki. Suddenly they would be a different team."

Crawley: Bayes, Watson, Stevens, Murphy, Bull (Joseph-Dubois 86), Thompson, Bulman, Pinault (Blackburn 46), Carayol, Vieira, Nlome-Ndebi (Pittman 46). Subs not used: Clapham, Krause.

Booked: Blackburn (57) foul, Murphy (90) foul.

Torquay: Rice, Nicholson, Robertson, Todd, Ellis, Mansell, Hargreaves, Zebroski, Stevens (Welsh 80), Benyon (Hill 90), Sills. Subs not used: Rayner, Wring, Hockley.

Booked: Todd (15) foul, Stevens (36) foul.

What went wrong in the first half for Crawley?