REDDITCH United boss Paul Smith found himself heavily out of pocket this week following their convincing 2-0 win over Banbury United.

Smith was forced to stump up £75 as a result of Robbie Bunn rifling home the opening goal with a tremendous left foot shot.

The money will be invested into the player's end of season Benidorm fund - but Smith had no complaints and said: "It's the best £75 I've spent this week - in fact it was worth every penny, because the goal enabled us to take a stranglehold on the game!

But Smith was equally excited about Reds' second goal, a well worked team move finished off by Shaquille Leachman-Whittingham.

Smith revealed that he'd slapped the player on contract earlier in the week and claimed: "I'm over the moon for Shaquille. He was here when I first arrived at Redditch and he was one of the players who I wasn't sure whether he'd fit in or not.

"We sat him down and talked to him. Now he's standing out in matches and just needs to work on producing an end product on a more regular basis".

Smith was quick to add: "Many people were telling me that Banbury would prove a good yardstick. But we've already beaten Tamworth and Rushall Olympic, so I hope we've convinced people that we belong at this level.

"We've beaten Banbury with two cracking goals and if I'm honest, we should have scored more because we were head and shoulders the better side.

"It's three league wins on the spin and if we go and get a result at bottom side Bedworth United next Saturday, who haven't won a game yet, we could be up to 14th place - which isn't bad when you consider we were cut adrift not so long ago.

"However, we take nothing for granted and give respect to every side we play. Bedworth will be dangerous by the very fact they haven't won yet!

Smith continues to strengthen his squad and brought in 18 year old 6ft tall midfield player Harry Franklin for his debut against Banbury after signing the teenager on dual registration forms from Hereford.

Busy Smith explained: "He's come from Hereford to get games and did really well when combining with Robbie Bunn and Ahmed Ali in midfield. Harry did all the rubbish stuff by breaking up attacks and played really well".

Smith was equally enthused by the size of the crowd at 322. He claimed: "It's the biggest crowd at Redditch this season and I hope they'll be back. I said right from the start I wanted to put smiles back on faces.

"When I first arrived, everyone was really down in the dumps and it was important to get everybody back up and running.

"It makes a huge difference when you get a good crowd behind the side as it lifts the players.

"We're out of the bottom three and already we're way ahead of where I thought we'd be!

Smith will be looking for another bumper crowd next Tuesday night when Reds entertain title chasing local rivals Stourbroidge.