REDDITCH United suffered a second-half collapse as they were beaten 2-1 away at St Ives Town which extends the Reds winless run in the league to nine matches.
Romario Martin scored on his United debut to put the visitors ahead 32 minutes before Matt Clarke’s side threw away the points in the second period.
Urijah Gordon-Douglas equalised on 47 minutes before Dylan Williams scored the winner from the penalty spot in the 76th minute to condemn Redditch to defeat.
The Reds are now only outside of the relegation zone on goal difference in 16th place – level on 14 points with three teams below them in the Southern League Premier Central table.
After a cagey opening half an hour – it was Redditch who took the lead when Martin allowed the ball to run onto his left foot before shooting across goal into the bottom right corner.
Reds keeper Kieran Boucher preserved the visitors lead at half-time when he denied Camron McWilliams from a tight angle.
However, St Ives drew level just two minutes after the interval when a free-kick was kept alive in the box and Gordon-Douglas was on-hand to smash home past a helpless Boucher.
Redditch almost reclaimed the lead in fortuitous circumstances when St Ives defender Brett Solkhon headed inches past his own post after he tried to play a blind pass back to goalkeeper Paul White.
But after Boucher had kept out Gordon-Douglas’s venemous effort – St Ives would score the winner just three minutes later.
Luke Cox was caught the wrong side of Gordon-Douglas in the box and brought him down with Williams sending Boucher the wrong way from the resulting penalty to hand St Ives the points.
Redditch spurned a late chance to equalise when Alex Cameron’s flick-on went through to Martin who was unable to beat St Ives keeper White who did well to close the angle.
The Reds return to action tomorrow night (Thursday, November 11) when they host Alvechurch in the Worcestershire Senior Cup with kick-off at 7:45pm at the Trico Stadium.
Entry to Thursday night’s game is free of charge with the club also raising money for remembrance day.
