MATT Clarke believes Redditch United are starting to find their identity again following a 3-2 win against Barwell.
A brace from Ryan Boothe either side of Marvellous Onabirekhanlen’s goal helped the Reds to a third straight win in all competitions at the Valley Stadium.
The result leaves Redditch 11th in the Southern League Premier Central table but Clarke stressed the need to remain patient as United look to continue their recent resurgence.
Clarke said: “A week is a long time in football, people were talking about us getting relegated a week ago and now they’re talking about the play-offs, we’re a million miles from that.
“It was important to continue the momentum, we needed to win the game and for large parts we were really good.
“We hadn’t been good enough the weeks before, we didn’t have an identity, we were lost and just kind of winging it.
“You make a couple of tweaks and bring a couple of players in and all of a sudden you can start to see we’re keeping the ball on the ground.
“People expect things to happen overnight but you have to be patient, there’s going to be blips on the road, we’re going to lose games of football.
“We know what we want to achieve and we know how we want to do it.”
Barwell took the lead on 18 minutes when veteran striker Lita flicked a header into the right corner of the goal from Tyrell Waite’s cross from the left.
However, Redditch drew level four minutes later as Boothe curled a shot into the corner from Dylan Thomas’s pass.
And the Reds completed the turnaround two minutes before half time when Onabirekhanlen turned home Thomas’s initial header after Jack Kelly’s corner caused chaos in the Barwell box.
United stretched their lead on 56 minutes as Boothe fired a shot into the roof of the net to score his second of the game from another Kelly corner.
However, Barwell reduced the deficit five minutes from time when substitute Deen Master finished from close range.
Redditch are next in action against Leiston on Saturday, February 1 with kick-off at 3pm at Victory Road.
