Kettering Town 4, Redditch United 0

The loss of star man Mark Creighton proved costly as United's five-match unbeaten run came to an abrupt finish.

Kettering offered little to suggest they were worthy of such an emphatic scoreline but made the game safe in an eventful 18-minute spell either side of the break from which the visitors never looked like recovering.

When Creighton suffered an injury early in the second half with the Reds already trailing by a goal, he naively hauled himself behind the goal before going down rather than staying on the pitch, prompting the referee to wave play on.

Whilst the visitors tried vainly to reorganise Anthony Elding escaped the attentions of the makeshift defence and clipped the ball beyond Anstiss for 2-0.

The Poppies eased home with two more goals as Redditch clearly missed their no-nonsense stopper, the unfortunate Richard Field deflecting a Neil Midgley effort past a hopelessly wrong-footed Anstiss in the 63rd minute.

The fourth goal came eight minutes from the end from Ryan Zico-Black's volley after Elding had flicked on David Theobald's cross to leave United still anxiously looking over their shoulders in Conference North ahead of a blank weekend which sees all three of their fellow strugglers in action.

It could have been more emphatic with a strong shout for a Kettering penalty turned down in the last minute after sub Junior McDougald was clearly hauled down in the box but the referee saw nothing wrong with the challenge.

The first half had been scrappy with a strong wind in Kettering's favour causing Redditch to struggle to clear.

The Reds remained under pressure for the greater part, but Kettering could not take advantage as the ball ran away from them -gathering pace off a very firm surface and helped along by the stiff breeze.

They hosts finally took a controversial lead a minute before half time, Wayne Diuk crossing from the right for Ollie Burgess to volley from beyond the far post and Midgley getting the final touch with the ball seemingly already heading goalwards having beaten Anstiss.

There were lengthy appeals for offside against Midgley, and these continued as the players and officials walked off at half time.

KTFC: Osborn, Diuk, Koo-Boothe, Theobald, McIlwain, Solkhon, Olaleye (Zico-Black 78), Peterson, H Elding, Midgley (McDougald, 85), Burgess (Hall, 48). Subs (not used): Nicell, Petr.

Reds: Anstiss 5, King 5, Reece 5, Thomas 5, HCREIGHTON 6 (Adams 62, 6), Field 5, Hollis 5 (Scheppel 66, 5), Taylor 6, Wilding 5, May 5 (Clarke 66, 5), Palmer 5. Subs (not used): Doyle, Whitcombe.