Redditch United 1 Atherstone United 3

AFTER promising spells at Shepshed and against leaders Chippenham on Saturday, the size of the task facing Rod Brown was made clear in a dreadful game at The Valley.

United never got started and although dominating posession early on failed to create as many chances as they did in the first ten minutes at the weekend.

Brown was hampered by the loss of defenders Nigel Niblett and Tommy Byrne inside 33 minutes.

And after conceding a goal against the run of play seconds after Byrne left the field, matters went from bad to worse when captain Lee Knight, so influential against Chippenham, was given his marching orders for allegedly elbowing Andy Marlowe four minutes after the restart.

The Reds were unlucky to find themselves a goal down against the run of play after an assured finish from striker Romi Cammock, who sidestepped keeper Martin Lakin in the 33rd minute.

Neil Cartwright had rattled the crossbar with a 20 yard dipper in the tenth minute and Michael Campbell put a close range header agonisingly wide three minutes later.

But United lacked direction and disintegrated after their captain's dismissal.

Substitute Kev Charley, on for the injured Cammock, scored a carbon copy second after four minutes on the field.

Charley sliced through a retreating United back line before dummying Lakin and rolling the ball home on 64 minutes.

Seven minutes later, the supersub claimed his second after some comedy defending from United's Nigel Brown.

Brown should never have allowed a long punt upfield to bounce and when Lakin rushed off his line to deal with it, the full-back unaccountably rolled the ball past his keeper and a delighted Charley was on hand to fire into the empty net.

The livewire sub was inches from claiming a hat trick six minutes later after sprinting clear of a tiring Steve Frost but his lobbed effort went over.

Reds new boy Tim Jackson was unable to impose himself on his United debut but claimed a consolation goal ten minutes from time.

Paul Danks did well to beat two players in the right hand corner and when his pull-back was half cleared, Ian Mitchell cleverly lobbed a pass to the far post where the diminutive Jackson was on hand to head past a scrambling Dale Belford.

The goal briefly fired United but it was the visitors who had the chances to win by a wider margin.

Desperate defending from Frost and sub Andy Bradley denied Charlery three minutes from time after the youngster rounded Lakin, and the keeper recovered well to beat out the resulting drive from Leon Doughty.

And Charley was the culprit again seconds later when he dragged his shot wide after being gifted posession 20 yards out by a weary Redditch defence.

Stourport Swifts player-coach Brendan Hackett has been signed and Brown will soon be turning to the veteran to bolster a back line which has leaked an alarming 19 goals in seven matches.