After starting well the Shots were made to work hard by their Sussex visitors, having to rely on a Darren Barnard strike 12 minutes from time as Terry Brown's men snatched these vital three points.
For Crawley, more of the same fight and spirit will be needed next season, but it could have been a different story for Francis Vines' men had they taken any one of their openings with the home side on the back foot for periods of the second half.
Overall though, the Shots were good value for this win, and in the opening 20 minutes they dominated with the wide play of Nick Crittenden posing a handful of problems, particularly for full-back Sean Hankin, who was continuously put to the sword by the pace and delivery of the Aldershot midfielder.
Chances came with Tim Sills heading over from Barnard's corner in the sixth minute, followed by further efforts that sailed over Andy Little's woodwork by the impressive Gary Holloway and Jon Challinor.
After a shaky start though Crawley forced their way back into it with skipper Simon Wormull teeing things up in the middle of the park.
In the 29th minute his splitting pass found Danny Marney inside the box, but although he connected well with his right-foot shot, keeper Nikki Bull did superbly to palm his effort away for a corner.
The remainder of the half rather fizzled out from there, but proceedings livened up at the start of the second period when Little saved well from Crittenden's rasping drive.
Brown's promotion chasers remained the better side, but with Steve Burton posing problems up front for Crawley there was always a danger.
Indeed, Burton was denied by Bull with a lunging dive midway through the half after Holloway's shot had caused the mother of all goalmouth scrambles at the other end shortly before.
In the end Barnard's volley inside the box was enough to seal the points, although substitute Dwain Clarke missed an absolute sitter with injury time approaching that would have made it far more comfortable.