SUPERMARINE boss Mark Collier saw red against Redditch as the injury-hit South Marston side narrowly failed to derail the Midlanders' Western Division title charge.

Collier was ordered from the dug-out after the visitors had taken a controversial 44th-minute lead.

The ball appeared to go out of play in the build up but the referee's assistant disagreed.

Richard Leadbetter duly netted and an incensed Collier vented his frustrations at the official in question.

Collier explained: "The ball had clearly gone out for a throw-in and they went on to score.

"I had a word with the linesman and he started flagging and told the referee I was swearing at him and that was that."

Collier's departure left a particularly sparse bench.

With Marine missing the likes of Giles Harris, Barrie Matthews, Justin Miller and Dean Gilevicz, Collier only had 12 fit bodies at his disposal and Sean Carter was the only named substitute.

Despite being down to the bare bones, Marine gave the league leaders a real scare.

Redditch grabbed their questionable opener late in the first half as Mark Taylor wrestled to keep the ball in play on the flank and crossed for Leadbetter to head home.

Collier had his altercation in the aftermath but was given something to smile about in first-half stoppage time.

Taylor handled in the penalty box, referee Chris Banks pointed to the spot, and Dave Toomey netted from 12 yards.

But Redditch maintained their five-point advantage at the top of the table with the winner with 20 minutes remaining.

Former Coventry midfielder Sean Flynn floated a corner into the goalmouth and Martin Myers rose highest to bury a towering header beyond Tom King.

Another defeat for Marine, but more positives to take from a gritty display as Collier looks to build for next season.

The Hunts Copse boss said: "I was quite pleased with the performance.

"Redditch are 40 points ahead of us in the table but they didn't look like it.

"What they did have was a bit more quality going forward than we did.

"Whoever got the second goal was going to go on and win it, and they did.

"But we competed well against the team at the top of the league despite missing several players."

SUPERMARINE: King, Blastland, Bennett, Jenkins, Davis, Copp, Futcher, Gee, Young, Toomey, J Carter. Sub: S Carter.

GLOUCESTER kept the pressure on Redditch with a 2-1 win over Sutton Coldfield.

The Tigers are five points behind with a game in hand and the top two go head to head next Saturday.

Ciren remain third after their 2-1 win over Ilkeston, with Halesowen moving up to fourth with a 1-0 win over previous incumbents Rugby.

Goal-shy Mangotsfield failed to score for the seventh successive game.

Last season's top scorers drew 0-0 at Solihull their fourth goalless stalemate in that sequence, punctuated by three 1-0 defeats.

Cinderford are back on the bottom of the pile despite drawing 2-2 at Bromsgrove.