DEFENSIVE mistakes proved costly as Hayes & Yeading were beaten at Crawley on Tuesday night.
Twice in the first half Hayes failed to clear their lines and on both occasions they were punished.
They also lost Delroy Preddie with a hamstring injury after the keeper overstretched trying to prevent a corner in the first period.
Elliott Buchanan had fired the visitors into a second minute lead and Hayes looked comfortable until Preddie left the field on 25 minutes.
But moments later substitute stopper Lee Harrison was picking the ball out the net as Hayes failed to clear a ball in from the left and John Dempster fired Crawley level.
And 10 minutes later the home side were in front when more slack defending allowed Richard Brodie to skip round the back and cross for Josh Simpson to put Crawley ahead.
Bradley Pritchard nodded home an equaliser in first half stoppage time but instead of galvanising Hayes, it fired Crawley up.
The away side held out again until just before the hour when Nathan Webb fouled Sergio Torres on the edge of the box and Matt Tubbs curled home the resulting free kick.
And the Blue Square Bet Premier's top scorer got his second and Crawley's fourth on 79 minutes when Tom Cadmore attempted to block his shot and it looped up over the head of Harrison.
New signing Joseph Pierre-Dubois came off the bench to make his debut and almost scored with a header that went just wide.
But it was Crawley who found the net again as the clocked ticked 90 minutes when Pablo Mills headed in a corner.
The evening also saw Peter Holmes, Jamie Hand, Pritchard and Cadmore in the book as Hayes and their 57 travelling fans left the Broadfield Stadium empty-handed.
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