He has the face of an angel and used to be a Saint but Elliot Benyon proved he is deadly in front of goal.

The 19-year-old scored a heavenly injury time wonder-strike against his old club to give Crawley a precious point at relegation rivals St Albans.

He came off the bench to smash a volley from the edge of the box past the full-length dive of keeper Paul Bastock.

Benyon was booked for his over zealous celebrations with the Crawley supporters after his thunderbolt.

It was the first time those fans had seen what he could do since joining on loan for the rest of the season from Bristol City last month.

He had only made one other appearance, as a first-half substitute at Tamworth two weeks ago, and struggled to make an impact.

Benyon's slight frame and boyish looks makes you wonder if he can cope against physical Conference defenders.

But, as St Albans will testify from his time with them, his appearance is deceiving.

Benyon scored six goals in 12 appearances for Saints during a three-month loan shortly before he arrived at Broadfield Stadium.

He said: "They told me to go on and do my best and try and get a goal, which is what I did.

"As the cross came in I just thought about keeping my eye on the ball and hitting the target. Usually in training they go out of the stadium.

"Hopefully I will be able to do my best for Crawley now and score a lot more goals for them."

Joint caretaker boss Ben Judge has no doubts that will be the case.

He said: "You can see in training that he is probably the best finisher we have got. He will get plenty of goals because he is a natural goalscorer."

St Albans, unsurprisingly, tried to keep Benyon after his prolific spell but the part-time club could not agree a deal with Bristol.

Judging by the dejected look of the Saints players as they trudged off at the end, they obviously did not appreciate the reminder of what they are missing.

To add insult to injury, Crawley's first goal was also scored by one of their old boys, Magnus Okuonghae, who joined Reds from Saints during the transfer window.

Benyon said: "A lot of people said that it was always going to be me and Magnus who scored.

"St Albans tried to keep me but it was complicated with the financial side. But I got on with (manager) Colin and I thank him for giving me my start in the Conference."

Late comebacks are becoming a trait of Reds.

They have netted last-gasp goals to collect points in three of the last five games.

Judge, who was ruled out due to a groin injury, said: "For sheer determination, no one can match us at the moment.

"We never know when we are dead.

"Sitting in the dugout, I was quite relaxed for the first time ever. I just thought we were going to get back into it."

Reds only had themselves to blame for needing Benyon's late intervention.

They dominated most of the possession and went ahead when Okuonghae headed through a crowded penalty area and into the bottom corner from a Tony Scully corner after 13 minutes.

But, for the first time since the 5-0 defeat at York, they looked unconvincing at the back and conceded two soft goals.

Ram Marwa had too much space in the box to head a weak effort past Ben Hamer five minutes after Okuonghae's goal.

Leon Archer netted the second just before the hour when he beat the offside trap to go clear following Lee Clarke's neat through ball.

It was the third time a Saints player had dropped into the hole to dissect the back-four with a threaded pass.

Reds clearly missed the suspended Steve Evans, Lee Blackburn and Scott Marshall in the middle of midfield.

Striker Lloyd Blackman filled the gap but his and fellow central playmaker Dannie Bulman's attacking instincts often left the defence with little protection.

Judge said: "They kept making the same runs in behind us, which they scored their second goal from. That was disappointing because we spoke about it at half-time.

"But when you are missing three centre midfielders, you are always going to struggle."

St Albans: Bastock, Seeby, Elphick, Sangare, Ada, Hann, Davis, Marwa, Watters, Clarke, Archer.

Subs not used: Cousins, Perks, Martin, Flynn, Basse.

Booked: Davis (54) foul, Archer (89) foul.

Crawley: Hamer, Hiley, Okuonghae, Woozley, Bull, England (Charles 72), Bulman, Blackman (Benyon 65), Scully, Richardson, Rendell.

Subs not used: Tolfrey, MacLeod, Lovegrove.

Booked: Benyon (92) unsporting behaviour.