HOURS after the tragedy which shook the world Redditch lost out in front of an excitable crowd seemingly unaware of the day's earth-shattering events.

Before the match Reds chairman Rod Laight had said it was too late to cancel the fixture in the wake of the shocking events across The Pond.

But the United chief said he expected a small crowd for the derby against Stourport because everyone would be at home watching the dramatic scenes and sparing little thought for football.

The club of course held a minutes' silence before the match as a mark of respect, but from the first whistle a sizeable crowd got behind their respective teams, celebrated when the goals went in, cheered or jeered a series of lunging tackles and hurled abuse at the inept referee.

On a night when football seemed so unimportant after the suspected deaths of thousands, it once again threw a decent sense of perspective out of the window.

The match would ordinarily be described as an ill-tempered affair with ferocious tackles and, at one point, a blatant punch in the face, ecouraged by Brownhills official Mr S Bratt.

Redditch were warned before the game by the jobsworth official after critical remarks about another referee in their match programme.

According to the latest piece of FA censorship, clubs are not allowed to criticise the men in the middle in their official publications, including websites.

So it appears the role rests solely with the local press.

Mr Bratt acted as if terrified of booking the players as the match descended into a farce in the second half.

Most notably when Stourport striker Lee Booth caught United goalkeeper Harvey Willetts on the head as he collected a straightforward ball in the area.

The imposing keeper responded by striding two yards and planting a left hook in the forward's face before being separated by other players.

The referee responded by giving them both a talking to before playing on.

For those of you interested in the details, the hosts were completely outrun in a one-sided first half and somehow managed to come in only one goal down after Tim Langford struck six minutes in.

After the break Redditch had more of the play but failed to create anything with a series of long punts into the Stourport area. The introduction of former Alvechurch striker Michael Campbell as substitute changed things and United equalised when he crossed for Paul Danks to score 13 minutes from time prompting unseemly wild celebrations.

Within a minute the visitors were ahead again through Booth and their supporters responded in kind.