Crawley Town 3 Bury 2: Ollie Palmer the hero again as his late winner seals victory

Filipe Morais had a goal dubiously ruled out but the Reds came away with a 3-2 win after an enthralling game. Picture by Steve Robards.

The Reds got off to a dream start as Jimmy Smith nodded home after slick work down the middle from Ashley Nathaniel-George found George Francomb who crossed for the skipper to give Crawley a third minute lead.

Crawley dominated the early stages as they moved the ball around nicely and carved out several half chances from free kicks and corners.

Bury's first attempt came on 18 minutes as Dom Telford tested Glenn Morris but a deflected thirty-yard drive from Filipe Morais flew past Joe Murphy to seemingly double the Red Devils lead but the goal was inexplicably ruled out for offside.

Understandably Harry Kewell and Warren Feeney were less than impressed by this decision, as were the supporters in the stands with chants of 'You don't know what you're doing' echoing around the ground.

Crawley again asserted their dominance with the ball but carved out few chances and they were nearly made to pay for it as Telford's 36th minute attempt skewed just wide of the top corner.

At half time the Reds lead 1-0 but seven minutes into the second half Crawley had the ball in the net for the third time.

Ollie Palmer twisted and turned in the box and got a shot away which was parried away by Murphy into the path of Dominic Poleon. The forward followed up to tap the ball home but Poleon was rightly adjudged to be offside.

Three minutes later Bury equalised on 56 minutes against the run of play as Chris Dagnall's soft shot had enough to beat Morris to level.

Bury cranked up the pressure in the attacking third after the goal and got their reward on 78 minutes as Telford's defence splitting through ball found Danny Mayor, and left Mark Connolly on his backside, and he duly rifled past Morris to make it 2-1 to the visitors.

The visitor's lead was short lived as four minutes later sub Panutche Camara leapt highest from a free kick after a foul on Nathaniel-George to restore parity.

Unbelievably Crawley had a third goal ruled out as the ball was bundled home by Camara but it was seen as a foul by the referee.

The drama was not finished there as with two minutes left Palmer weaved and worked his way into the Bury box, beating three defender before drilling home to give Crawley the lead.

Deep into second half stoppage time Morris made a superb acrobatic save to deny Telford and secure a hard fought win for Crawley in a thrilling game.

Crawley Town: Morris, Francomb, Vincelot, Connolly, Doherty, Morais (Young 70'), Smith (Milsom 90'), Bulman, Nathaniel-George, Palmer, Poleon (Camara 75'). Unused: Mersin, Grego-Cox, Randall

Bury: Murphy, Thompson, O'Connell (Styles 57'), McFadzean, Adams, Dawson, Danns, O'Shea (Mayor 45'), Stokes, Dagnall (Omotayo 64'), Telford. Unused: Hudson, Edwards, Moore, Barjonas

Attendance: 2,036 (272 away)