ROCK bottom Redditch belied their lowly position and produced their best performance of the season to stifle top of the table Stoke Old Boys.

Redditch refused to roll over and shocked unbeaten Stoke with their resistence before finally losing out 26-10 in Midlands 4 West South.

Even though the Redditch pack held their own in all aspects of play, they went behind when Stoke snapped up lineout ball and drove over to score a converted try against the run of play.

Redditch responded when San Gladwin saw a penalty shot strike the upright but from the resulting scrum, Lewis Saddington fed Jamie Holloway, who in turn made space for Barry Forester-Smith to surge over the line with Gladwin converting.

Stoke snatched the lead back with a second unconverted try before Redditch forced a series of penalties, Gladwin eventually landing one, which cut the deficit to just 12-10 at half time.

The second half saw Stoke opt to run more of their possession and they slowly but surely started to dominate before adding a third try which was duly converted.

But that only spurred Redditch to redouble their efforts with the back row of Allen, Matthews and Wormington tackling everything in sight.

Any hopes of a Redditch recovery were finally thwarted when Stoke pounced on a simple interception to add a further seven points.

But Redditch can take great heart from this display. which if repeated should provide a much better reward.

There are no fixtures this week.