Crawley boss Scott Lindsey basked in the glow of a crucial home victory after his side keep alive their hopes of avoiding relegation with a 3-1 success over Exeter.
Two goals from Rushian Hepburn-Murphy and another by Panutche Camara gave the Red Devils a 3-0 lead after only 24 minutes.
Midfielder Caleb Watts replied within a minute, but Exeter never looked like mounting a comeback before Ed Francis was sent off in the dying minutes for two bookable offences.
Crawley, 12 points from safety when Lindsey returned a month ago, have now cut the gap between them and Burton to three, although Burton have a game in hand over them.
The Red Devils had only won two home games in the previous five months and Lindsey acknowledged: “We should all embrace today as we’ve not had too many of them. It’s a good feeling to have won and played well.
“You always want to start really well and I wondered if we’d peaked too soon.
“But I thought we played well, scored some good goals and got our game plan spot on.”
Crawley host Northampton on Saturday before closing the season at Shrewsbury and Lindsey added:” We are hanging on in there.
“The results around us were positive for us and our result was positive so it was a good day at the office.”
Exeter manager Gary Caldwell had set his men a target of finishing in the top half of the table after guiding the Grecians to 14th and 13th placed finishes in his previous two seasons in charge.
But they cannot pass the 61 points they achieved last season and Caldwell admitted that they had been “humbled” and “must do better”.
He said: “Crawley had everything to play for but we played too quick, gave away some shocking goals and were loose all over the park.
“We’ve been humbled, defeated and must do better in every aspect of the game or you won’t win many football matches.
“The players looked as though they were thinking of the summer. But the season for me is not over.
“These last two games are the most important because next year is going to be an almighty challenge at this level.”
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