Mark Wright endures nightmare full debut as Harrogate ease past Crawley

Harrogate scored three times in the first half of a 3-1 victory at Crawley, who gave former reality TV star Mark Wright his first professional start.

Harrogate had Will Smith dismissed midway through the second half, but goals from Aaron Martin, Josh March and Simon Power had already put them on their way to a second successive win.

Crawley head coach John Yems gave a professional league debut to 34-year-old former The Only Way is Essex star Wright, who was drafted in at left-back in place of Tom Dallison but was taken off at half-time.

The Reds suffered an early shock when March played in Martin and he calmly fired his fifth goal of the season under goalkeeper Glenn Morris in the 13th minute.

Morris was tested midway through the half when he parried a goal-bound shot from the recalled Connor Hall following George Thomson's corner.

Harrogate doubled their lead on the half-hour when, following a strong run by Josh McPake, skipper George Francomb brought down March who then calmly stepped up to send Morris the wrong way from the penalty spot.

It got worse for Crawley before the break with Simon Power making it 3-0 in stoppage time with a deflected shot from just inside the area.

Yems made a triple substitution at the break, including replacing Wright with Dallison who scored nine minutes after coming on, drilling home after a goalmouth scramble.

Harrogate were reduced to 10 men after 67 minutes when Smith received a straight red card for bringing down the on-rushing Tom Nichols.

But the North Yorkshire side comfortably saw the game out to leave Crawley without a home league win for seven weeks.