Frome Town 8, Redditch United 1

REDDITCH United’s drubbing at Frome had Southern League officials reaching for the record books after a day to forget in Somerset.

Reds were on the back foot from the outset and could have shipped more than the eight that flew past overworked keeper and standout performer Brad Catlow.

It was the club’s heaviest defeat since rejoining the Southern League in the summer of 2011, evoking painful memories of the 9-0 beating by Boston United in August 2010 – the opening match of the season Redditch were relegated from Conference North.

Frome had enjoyed the better of the play when the floodgates opened on 25 minutes when Redditch failed to clear a corner and Jake Jackson blasted home from eight yards.

Within five minutes, Ollie Knight made it two by beating Jordan Cullinane-Liburd to the chase before lobbing the exposed Catlow.

Mike Bryant was left unmarked to thump a shot into the ground which looped into the roof of the net to leave United reeling at the interval Sam Teale outjumped Cullinane-Liburd to nod home from a recycled corner seven minutes after the restart but the visitors grabbed a quick lifeline when Danico Johnson netted on the rebound after Reece Hales had a shot pushed away by Kyle Phillips.

Any hope was short lived, though, as Catlow was punished for holding an opponent in the box and Jon Davies sent him the wrong way from the penalty spot with an hour played.

Substitute James Fitzgibbon added fresh impetus to an already-potent attack and teed up Jackson to miss two golden chances before notching his second with a deft near-post flick.

Fitzgibbon and Jackson then combined to set up Bryant to power home from 18 yards 10 minutes from time.

Although Fitzgibbon and Bryant both missed sitters, the eighth did arrive in the 90th minute when Jackson completed his hat-trick from 15 yards.

The result was United’s worst in the Southern League since the start of the 1995-6 season. They initially joined ahead of the 1972-3 campaign.

They have since had one season in the Alliance Premier League (1979-80) before spending seven seasons in the Conference North between the summers of 2004 and 2011.

Reds: CATLOW 6*, Jones 4, Dhillon 5, Courtney 4, Brown 4, Cullinane-Liburd 4, Benjamin 4, Hales 4, Keen 5 (Angus, 64, 4), Singh 4 (Mehmood, 70, 4), Johnson 5. Unused subs: Bako, Campbell.