Bilston Town 3 Redditch United 2

A STIRRING comeback from Redditch United ul-timately proved to be in vain as Steelmen sub Jamie Nicholls hit an 85th minute winner.

Goals from Peter Sutton and Lea Shaw had seen the visitors come back from the dead but Martyn Nay-lor found Tyrone Fagan on the right and the forward made ground before finally spotting the unmarked Nicholls with a delightful cross for the sub to crash home the winner.

Sean Williams almost slid the hosts in front in the third minute after Reds keeper Neil Olden flapped at a cross from Clint Hughes.

And Fagan was wide of the mark before opening the scoring from close range in the 30th minute after Olden was caught in no man's land when Gavin Stone flicked on a Naylor long throw from the right.

United had a strong penalty appeal turned down when Naylor was all over Sutton in the box and the forward scuffed his shot to unconventional Bilston keeper Steve Nicholson in the 39th minute.

But Bilston should have been two up in first half in-jury time when a Sean Williams cross with the outside of his boot was al-lowed to reach an unmarked Hughes at the far post only for the midfielder to blaze wastefully wide.

Nicholson scrambled away a Quentin Townsend long throw, flicked on by Nigel Niblett after the break and Town doubled their lead in the 52nd minute when a Williams cross from the right bounced off Fagan and dropped for Hughes to hammer home despite Olden getting a hand on it.

The Redditch recovery began in the 66th minute when Richard Field picked out sub Stuart Grosvenor in the area and he slipped between Stone and Steve Cooper before crossing for Sutton to pull one back with a diving header at the far post.

And 11 minutes from time the Reds thought they had earned at least a point when another Townsend long throw was missed by Niblett's attempted flick-on but caught out Nichol-son and fell for Shaw to claim the simplest of goals close-in.

But Bilston had the final say and held on for the last five minutes despite being down to ten men after Leroy Murphy was sent off for his second bookable of-fence.