The Ambers had a couple of great chances to go ahead, but were made to pay in the 75th minute when Bernard Mensah headed home from a Reece Flanagan corner.

The tie got off to a fairly uneventful start, with neither side really creating anything early on, and it wasn’t until the 14th minute that the game saw its first opportunity.

After some neat work down the left wing, Riley O’Sullivan whipped a ball across the face of the Basford area and Harry Reilly got onto the end of it with the faintest of touches, but it wasn’t enough to divert the ball goalwards and worry Kieran Preston.

The chance seemed to light a spark in the game, and United were immediately up the other end with a chance of their own. Skipper Matt Thornhill tried his luck from distance with a wonderful, curling effort, but it flew narrowly over the angle of the crossbar.

Debutant Jonathan Wafula - on his first start since a deadline move on Thursday - then had the best chance of the half for his new side shortly before the interval.

After Anthony Dwyer threaded a delicious ball through the heart of the Redditch defence, Wafula found himself one-on-one with 'keeper Adam Harrison, but his shot was smothered and eventually cleared.

Kittrick’s side began to take hold of the game and Lewis Carr almost gave them the lead them right at the death of the first half getting on the end of a corner, but he couldn’t keep his header down and the sides went into the break level.

The second half got off to a much more electric start and Courey Grantham had a wonderful chance to give United the lead. After some wonderful link-up play with Dwyer, the winger burst into the visitors’ area and, after an initial cross was blocked, his follow-up shot thundered off the far post.

Redditch had no trouble conjuring opportunities of their own, though, and had several attempts from distance to break the deadlock but failed to really test Preston in the United goal.

A mix up at the back then saw O’Sullivan break through the defence with only Preston to beat, but the shot-stopper denied him with a firm save at his near post., before Redditch took an eventual lead in the 75th minute

In the descending sun, a far-side corner from Flanagan was dangerous and whilst Mensah flicked goal wards, the final touch looked to come off Preston and Redditch held on to take the points back to Worcestershire.

Next up, we take on already-relegated AFC Rushden & Diamonds on Tuesday night (7.45pm).

UNITED: Preston; Roma, Barnes, Carr, McGowan; Dunn, Da Silva Bastos, Thornhill (c), Grantham (Njaria 60); Wafula (James 85'), Dwyer
SUBS (not used): Beatson, Clark, Musson (GK)

ATT: 303