Two goals from on-loan striker Ollie Allen earned Crawley a 2-2 draw at home to play-off chasing Exeter in the Blue Square premier at Broadfield Stadium tonight.

Crawley have conceded far too many goals during their recent abysmal run and boss Steve Evans responded by making three changes at the back.

Goalkeeper Danny Knowles came in for his debut after arriving on emergency loan from Grays to replace the suspended Ashley Bayes.

Bradley Thomas and Kieran Murphy also came in to a new-look back four but the changes did not have the desired effect as Reds fell behind after just 13 minutes.

Knowles had already been forced into one save at full stretch from a Wayne Carlisle long-range strike when he was picking the ball out of his net.

Thomas was judged to have brought down his man on the edge of the area and Rob Edwards curled the resulting free kick over the wall and past Knowles' despairing dive.

The lead only lasted six minutes though and it was another of Evans' four changes from the side which lost 3-1 at Stevenage who did the trick.

Allen, who was unable to play on Saturday because he is on loan from Stevenage, was brought in to replace Magno Vieira for his full debut and justified his inclusion when he fired home after Glenn Wilson had headed Jamie Cook's deep cross from the left back across goal.

Edwards came within a whisker of restoring Exeter's advantage 12 minutes before the break with an even more spectacular strike than the one which produced his goal.

He struck the ball sweetly on the half-volley from almost exactly the same spot as his free kick but it crashed back off the underside of the cross bar with Knowles well beaten.

The visitors continued to look the more dangerous side and Knowles had to be alert to race off his line and chest the ball away from Wayne Carlisle as he raced through on goal.

Evans was forced to make a change three minutes before the break as Tyrone Thompson replaced the clearly out of sorts Lee Blackburn and made another switch during the interval, Mustapha Carayol coming on in place of Cook.

Crawley had to switch things around as a result with Carayol going to left back, Jamie Stevens moving into the centre and Dannie Bulman going to right midfield.

They looked much more comfortable now and took the lead in the 58th minute. Dan Seabourne brought Jon-Paul Pittman down in the box and Allen made sure he grabbed the ball to fire the spot kick past Andy Marriott.

Allen could have completed his hat-trick when he burst clear of the defence but sent his lob well over the bar and at the other end Matt Taylor and substitute Steve Basham went close as the visitors pushed for an equaliser.

Carayol and Pittman wasted good chances to secure the points for Reds as they caught the visitors on the counter-attack and they were made to pay when Exeter grabbed an equaliser with ten minutes to go.

The home defence was waiting for a high free kick to be swung into the box but instead the visitors took it short and Dean Moxey unleashed a low drive from 25 yards which seemed to surprise Knowles as it beat him at his near post.

Should Evans sign Allen on a permanent basis?