Evo-Stik Southern Premier

Cirencester Town 2

Redditch United 1

WHILE no one at Cirencester Town is digging out a copy of The Great Escape theme tune to play over the tannoy just yet, Charlie Griffin’s side edged two points closer to safety with a 2-1 win over mid-table Redditch United on Saturday.

The one piece of real quality in an ordinary game which boasted little goalmouth incident came just 11 seconds after the start.

Khaellem Bailey-Nicholls, on loan from Wrexham, underhit a pass looking for his right back Jordon Jones and the alert Dan Demkiv raced to intercept, settled himself and found the top corner with a fierce rising drive.

The only other talking point came in the 51st minute when both Redditch No.6 Jordon Cullinane-Liburd and Cirencester’s Aidan Bennett were shown red cards after an off the ball tussle.

Cullinane-Liburd had been spoken to by the referee when the pair tangled and exchanged pleasantries in the first half. On this occasion the defender took exception to Bennett giving him a hand to get off the floor after an accidental clash and he retaliated by pushing Bennett to the ground.

The referee’s assessor claimed after the game that punches had been thrown by both parties, but the vast majority at the ground saw nothing of the sort.

If deemed violent conduct when the referee’s report is checked on Monday, Bennett will miss three of the final five games of the season, a tough blow for Ciren just when his restoration to the second striker role has paid dividends with back-to-back wins.

Cirencester looked to have made the points safe in the 68th minute when Alan Griffin headed home a cross from sub Kieran Diaz-Benitez.

But the Cirencester defence, unaccountably given how resilient they had looked for the rest of the afternoon, went AWOL 10 minutes later and the pacy Dior Angus headed home a cross from sub Luke Keen.

It was Angus who had seen Redditch’s best other chance well saved by Glyn Garner in the first half.

Darren Byfield’s Redditch, who had finished second in the division last season before losing out in the play-offs, have seen their season fizzle out after a decent start. A string of bad results have included defeats to four of the bottom seven – St Neots Town, Cambridge City, Hayes & Yeading and now Cirencester.

In the wake of the low-key celebration of their goal, the team with nothing to play for never looked like threatening to get a point. Meanwhile, the hosts, who sit in the final relegation spot, were inspired by the wise heads of Matt Coupe, James Mortimer-Jones and man of the match Alan Griffin, to battle and protect their lead.

Four defeats for other lowly sides over the weekend raises the possibility of the last relegation places not being confirmed until the final afternoon when Ciren travel to fellow strugglers Kings Langley.

On Tuesday they have the diversion of the Gloucestershire Senior Trophy quarter final tie with Shortwood United when boss Griffin will rest the majority of his first team squad and play the fringe players, several of the Development side, and himself up front.

Cirencester Town: Garner, Brown, Dunton, Mortimer-Jones, Liddiard (capt), Coupe, Spalding (Diaz-Benitez, 65), Connolly, Griffin, Bennett, Demkiv (Gudger, 69).

Unused subs: C Griffin, Thompson, Elliott.