MARK Yates bemoaned the way Crawley Town went from “being so good to being so thick” as Oxford United shrugged off an early setback to inflict a 5-1 drubbing.

The mid-table hosts caused problems in the first half and led when Joe McNerney tapped in after a scramble in United’s six-yard box.

But the lead only last ten minutes and once the visitors went ahead two minutes after the break, Crawley disintegrated.

Yates said: “We talk about goals changing games and once the second one went in, I think you saw a lot of negativity creeping in and we didn't deal with situations.

"I think we have (goalkeeper) Jack Rose to thank it wasn't a couple more. That's the most frustrating we can go from being so good to being so thick.”

The Crawley boss also felt Danny Hylton got the better of centre half Josh Yorwerth, which contributed to the collapse.

He said: “Josh got put off his game by the lad Hylton and fair play to him for that, but Josh has got to learn from that.

“We just didn’t defend properly and in the end it looks like we’ve been absolutely hammered.

“Yes, we got the run-around in the second half, but it certainly wasn’t that in the first half.”