Caolan Lavery netted his first goal for the club as Rovers battled out a 1-1 draw at Crawley Town.

Lavery flicked home a header in first half stoppage time but Rafiq Khaleel cancelled it out eight minutes from the end to ensure a share of the spoils.

It was a contest that was bogged down in the middle of the park for long spells, with neither side able to produce sustained quality on the night.

Danny Schofield made three enforced changes with Liam Ravenhill, Lavery and captain Tom Anderson coming into the side to replace injured pair Harrison Biggins and George Miller, plus Ben Nelson, who was on international duty with England U19.

The hosts were the first to show threat with James Tilley drilling wide from a tight angle while Stuart Moore got down well to hold a 20 yard strike from Mazeed.

Striker Dom Telford fired over the bar for Crawley after Tilley saw a shot blocked.

It proved a struggle for Rovers to find their flow in the game as possession was conceded cheaply. While the hosts had the better of the ball, they too lacked coherency in attacking areas for large spells.

The game grew increasingly scrappy around the midpoint of the half, with plenty of breaks in play.

But Rovers began to show more signs of life as half time approached, and they saw more of the ball in the opposition half.

However it took until stoppage time for them to register their first attempt - and it was taken clinically.

Close sent in an excellent delivery from a free kick on the left and Lavery darted into space to flick a header into the corner to give Rovers the lead at half time.

Moore produced a comfortable stop early in the second half as he claimed a driven effort from Telford, who had raced onto a ball forward from keeper Corey Addai.

Much of the second half was a backs-to-the-wall effort for Rovers but the hosts struggled to turn possession into clear cut chances for the most part.

Moore went full stretch to get his fingertips to a fine volley from Jack Powell as the game moved into the final 15 minutes.

Crawley found their breakthrough on 82 minutes. Substitute Khaleel raced onto a loose ball 20 yards out and slammed a shot in off the post.

Buoyed, Crawley pushed for a winner and it took two excellent block saves from Moore to keep the score level. The hosts had a goal disallowed for offside in stoppage time with Ashley Nadesan firing home only for the flag to go up.

And Rovers held on to take a point back north.

Crawley: Addai, Johnson, Lynch (Gordon 33), Conroy, Mazeed, Tilley (Fellows 63), Powell, Gladwin (Khaleel 76), Oteh, Telford, Nadesan. Subs not used: Schofield, Mason, Roles, Spong.

Rovers: Moore, Olowu, Anderson, Rowe, Brown, Close, Ravenhill (Faulkner 67), Seaman, Molyneux, Hurst (Miller 89), Lavery (Agard 83). Subs not used: Oram, Degruchy, Barlow, Goodman.