Crawley Town won promotion to League One with a deserved 2-0 victory against Crewe Alexandra at Wembley.

Goals from Danilo Orsi and the excellent Liam Kelly capped a dominant display for the Sussex side in the League Two play-off final.

Orsi followed up his semi-final hat-trick heroics with a cute finish with the outside of his foot to give the Reds a first-half lead.

Crewe thought they had a penalty after the break but saw the decision overturned following a VAR check, which is in use in all the EFL play-off finals, after Christopher Long went down under a challenge from goalkeeper Corey Addai.

But Kelly sealed a fine performance with a deserved goal to send his side back to the third tier of English football for the first time since 2015.

Crawley dominated possession from the start and looked the stronger of the two sides despite a quiet opening 20 minutes.

Kelly then carved out the first meaningful chance of the match, starting a fine passing move and receiving the ball from Orsi before sending a weak shot into the arms of Crewe goalkeeper Max Stryjek.

Crewe began to get a foothold in the game and almost took the lead as Elliott Nevitt won the ball in the Crawley half and sent a right-foot shot towards the bottom corner, with Crawley keeper Addai turning it round the post.

But Crawley’s semi-final hat-trick hero Orsi soon gave his side a deserved lead with the outside of his foot to finish a lovely move.

Four minutes before the break, midfielder Kelly - so often the architect for Crawley - played a neat one-two before feeding Orsi, who took the ball past the falling Ed Turns and finished neatly for his 25th goal of the season.

Crawley were buoyant and almost doubled their lead immediately with Jeremy Kelly’s effort deflected narrowly wide before Klaidi Lolos fired over the bar in added time as the Sussex side ended the half in total control.

A moment of controversy came early in the second as a mix-up between Adam Campbell and Addai put Long through one-on-one with the Crawley keeper.

Addai threw a leg out and Long went down under the challenge, with referee Ben Toner pointing to the spot and showing Addai a yellow card.

But the video assistant referee directed him to look at the screen, with replays showing a clear contact on the ball and Toner reversing the decision.

Crewe keeper Stryjek’s blushes were then spared as he hesitated under pressure from Orsi before a foul was given against the striker.

Crawley were applying pressure and it seemed a question of when, rather than if, they would double their lead, with substitute Ronan Darcy twice going close.

It was Kelly who capped a magnificent performance with his sixth goal of the season to effectively seal victory with five minutes of normal time left.

One again searching for Orsi in the middle, his left-foot cross was cut out by the sliding Crewe captain Mickey Demetriou, the ball coming back to Kelly with Stryjek pulled out of position and free to place the ball into an empty net in front of the jubilant Crawley fans.

While 10 minutes of added time gave Crewe some hope, Crawley almost embellished their winning margin at the death as Orsi forced a save from Stryjek.

Referee: Ben Toner

Attendance: 33,341