Colchester United 2-3 Crawley Town

Izale McLeod's 75th-minute penalty earned a vital three points for Crawley Town against League One relegation rivals Colchester United.

Sammie Szmodics fired a superb first-half opener for the hosts, cancelled out by Ryan Dickson's tap-in.

Crawley went ahead when Gavin Tomlin swept home, but David Fox's free-kick levelled for Colchester.

McLeod scored from the spot after being felled by Sam Walker to help Crawley leapfrog Colchester in the table.

Colchester gave a debut to winger Jacob Murphy, who has joined on loan from Norwich for the remainder of the season, but defender Bongani Khumalo must wait for his first appearance after moving on a similar deal from Spurs.

Crawley Town boss Dean Saunders told BBC Surrey:

"It made me think at times why would you be a football manager because we were hanging on at the end. It's a great result, we had to come here and damage Colchester and get the points and we managed to do it. Terrific effort by everybody.

"We had some good performances out there and I am really pleased for the players because they've got a good spirit amongst them.

"We've just played three or four top teams and I said if we can put that performance in again, we'll score against the teams that aren't as good.

"I just said I don't care how we play we've just got to make sure we get the three points."