Crawley edged a five-goal thriller to give boss Kevin Betsy his first League Two win in eight attempts with a 3-2 home success over Stockport.

County twice came back to level, but Nick Tsaroulla’s strike from distance settled the contest to put a damper on Dave Challinor’s 50th game in charge of Stockport.

Full-back James Brown threatened for County in only the second minute when his goal-bound shot was turned around a post by goalkeeper Corey Addai.

But the visitors, who had lost their opening three away league games, went behind after five minutes when the unmarked James Tilley fired home from 25 yards to the right of keeper Vit Jaros.

Olly Crankshaw levelled after 17 minutes with his first goal of the season, racing through to beat Addai in a one-on-one situation, and he should have scored again moments later but put the ball over when well placed.

Striker Dom Telford, who scored 25 goals in 37 games for Newport last term, restored the Reds’ advantage from close range after 36 minutes with his first league goal for the club after Tom Nichols seized on a defensive mistake by Akil Wright.

County started the second half on the front foot and, after Crankshaw had been brought down, Chris Hussey made it 2-2 direct from a free-kick in the 53rd minute.

But Tsaroulla put Crawley ahead for the third time with a fine finish from 25 yards three minutes later, with Addai brilliantly denying Antoni Sarcevic shortly after.

And Crawley comfortably held on to end a run of 11 league matches without a win stretching back to mid-April.