OXFORD United Women’s manager Liam Gilbert bemoaned a “mad ten minutes” as they crashed to a 3-1 defeat at Crawley Wasps.

Gemma Sims had put the U’s in front, but the FA Women’s National League Southern Premier Division leaders hit back with a rapid treble.

Gilbert said: “Fair play to Crawley they are a quality team but from our point of view it was a mad ten minutes where they scored three goals.

“We’ll learn from that and I thought there were plenty of positives to take from the game, we played some good football and I think we created nine chances in the first half alone.

“If one of those goes in the back of the net then it’s a different story when we go in at half-time but it wasn’t to be.”

United came closest to scoring in the first half, Sims and Kayleigh Hines volleying over.

Sims made the most of her next chance, firing in from Cheryl Williams’ corner.

But the advantage did not last long. Crawley levelled through Naomi Cole’s penalty, given away by Hines.

And the Wasps never looked back, with Faye Rabson and Darcy James on target.

Crawley had their goalkeeper sent off for lashing out at Williams, but the visitors could not take advantage.

The U’s next visit Watford on Sunday.

Oxford Utd: Watson, Clifford (Lancaster), Sims, Beaver, Searle, Hines, Haynes, Williams, Gane (Moore), Allen, Timms (Baker)

Unused subs: Kirby, Johns.