MATT Clarke hopes his Redditch United side can ‘bounce back’ following a 2-0 home defeat against in-form St Ives Town.
With the game in the balance, Daniel Barton broke the deadlock for St Ives on 56 minutes before Jonathan Edwards scored from the penalty spot late on at the Valley Stadium.
Despite the defeat, Redditch remain top of the Southern League Premier Central table and boss Clarke hopes his wounded side can respond to the setback with a win at Halesowen Town this weekend.
Clarke said: “Up until 60 minutes it was a really close game between two good teams, I thought we were edging it, we looked like we could have gone on and won the game.
“Unfortunately, we made a really bad defensive error and that deflated us and their game management was good, we’ve lost to a good team but obviously it’s disappointing.
“Halesowen are a fantastic club who are really well supported but there’s big pressure on them, they’ve got a huge budget.
“When you’re spending the money they’re spending with the personnel, resources and the crowds, the expectation level is huge.
“The pressure is on them, they’re at home, we’ve got the best away record in the league, we’ll go there a little bit wounded, I’m hoping we bounce back in a positive way.”
St Ives opened the scoring just before the hour mark when Barton drove into the box before curling a shot into the top right corner of the goal.
And the visitors made sure of the points nine minutes from time as Edwards found the bottom right corner from the spot after Musa Ceesay committed a foul on the scorer in the box.
Redditch are next in action away at Halesowen on Saturday, February 10 with kick-off at 3pm at The Grove.
