REDDITCH United were shown no mercy by local rivals and title hopefuls Bromsgrove Sporting who cruised to a 7-1 victory at the Victora Ground on Tuesday.
Difficult as it may be to believe given the scoreline, Redditch played some of their best football for many weeks in patches but once again the outcome of the match was never in doubt.
With loan striker Brandon Diau impressive, the Reds did not surrender, but the young visitors were on the end of another humbling scoreline having lost 6-0 at Lowestoft Town on Saturday.
It is now 21 league defeats in a row for United who host Needham Market on Saturday knowing Southern Premier Central relegation is nigh on certain.
The deadlock was broken two minutes in when a long ball from Richard Gregory found Will Shorrock, who beat his man before powering home low into the goal.
Redditch stopper Kieran Boucher, impressive throughout, had to be alert to smartly save efforts from Gregory and Mikey Taylor inside the first 20 minutes, before Josh Harris-James had a free kick blocked for the visitors on the 25th minute.
Soon afterwards, Greg Mills had an effort saved by the feet of Boucher and a Taylor shot from inside the box slithered just wide.
The second goal arrived in the 40th minute, as Mills was brought down in the area, leading to Gregory putting the resultant spot-kick into the bottom corner with aplomb.
The third was scored on the stroke of half-time when Gregory played in Mills, who saw his fiercely struck shot take a touch off a defender on its way to finding the net.
There was a small glimmer of hope for Redditch in the 51st minute, as a corner by former Sporting player Tom Rankin was bundled in at the far post by Josh Endall.
However, any notions of a comeback were soon extinguished just after the hour mark as Gregory placed a nonchalant penalty past Boucher in the 62nd minute after former Reds forward Taylor was brought down.
This was soon followed by the fifth home goal as Taylor found himself one on one with the keeper and delicately poked the ball around him.
Shaquille McDonald capped a nice run with a decent shot that drew a fine save by Boucher in the 79th minute, but the scoring was far from over.
Firstly, McDonald hammered home into the bottom corner after a back-heel from Taylor set him up, before Shorrock latched on to a nice pass inside the area and dinked the ball over Boucher to make it 7-1.
