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Newport County stayed top of League Two despite being held at 10-man Crawley Town.

Ryan Haynes gave Newport an early lead with a curling effort after good work by Scott Twine.

But Crawley were level when Mickey Demetriou managed to send a header past his own goalkeeper Nick Townsend.

The home side's fortunes dipped when Tarryn Allarakhia was sent off for a reckless challenge on Liam Shephard, but Newport could not find a winner.

Newport kept their one-point lead despite what is now a four-match winless run, as Carlisle were also held thanks to a thrilling late Bolton Wanderers fight-back and Forest Green drawing at Exeter City.

Newport assistant manager Wayne Hatswell:

"We should have won the game, we just couldn't quite find that cutting edge and it's two points dropped. Maybe on a different day we would win that game 3-1 or 4-1.

"But it's a tough place and a tough division. We go again now with two big home games.

"We are still top of the league. We are in the right place. We have got an away point and now we need to turn that into a performance at home."