Crawley Town 0 Carlisle United 3: Rhys Bennett, Joshua Kayode and Aaron Hayden were on target as Carlisle United produced a superb away display at Crawley.

The dominant Cumbrians became the first League Two side to win at the People's Pension Stadium this season.

And it was no more than they deserved after Chris Beech's team put together one of their best performances of the campaign.

Bennett forced in the opener late in the first half then United stepped things up further as Kayode fired home a George Tanner cross, Hayden then capping an impressive Blues spell with a low third.

Crawley saw sub David Sesay sent off late on for bringing down Omari Patrick.

Carlisle could have had more goals and restricted John Yems' side to very few chances as they reasserted their credentials at the top end of the table.

Bennett was impressive on his first league start at the back while United dominated in the Crawley half to go up to fourth in the table.

It took time for the first real chances to open up, although Jon Mellish had an early shot blocked and the recalled Kayode - back from international duty - failed to control a useful Alessandra cross in the second minute.

Tom Nichols was flagged offside as he broke through for the hosts, with Crawley's interplay in the final third causing a few problems.

United, though, had good presence with some of their persistent attacking Kayode leading the line well and the striker denied by keeper Glenn Morris when a Nick Anderton cross reached him in the 22nd minute.

Alessandra had an effort blocked and, after Nichols missed two half-chances in the box, Carlisle stepped things up further with Alessandra rifling wide from the edge of the area and Joe Riley having one effort blocked and miskicking another from a decent position.

Alessandra was again denied before Carlisle broke the deadlock late in the half, rebuilding after a free-kick had been cleared and Gime Toure cutting in.

When his shot was saved, Bennett was there following in, scoring at the second attempt after Morris had saved his initial finish.

It was the defender's first goal for nearly two years and came on his full league debut, Rod McDonald missing with a groin injury.

Nichols flashed another header wide for the Red Devils right on half-time.

But Carlisle then started the second half in fine style and after Anderton had a shot blocked, United doubled their lead.

The architect was George Tanner with a superb run from the right, and Republic of Ireland Under-21 frontman Kayode arrived to slam home the right-back's low cross for his second United goal of the campaign and his first in 10 Blues outings.

Carlisle were now dominant, Hayden seeing a header cleared off the line before the defender got the Cumbrians' third on 63 minutes.

He reacted quickest to stab the ball in for his third of the campaign after Alessandra had reacted first to the breaking ball on the left and fired it across.

Crawley made changes but seldom tested the Blues, who were tough in midfield and at the back, and were denied a fourth when sub Patrick was denied at close range by a superb Sesay challenge.

Sesay, though, then saw red on 81 minutes, the home sub penalised by ref Coggins for bringing down Patrick as the Blues man went clean through.