And within hours, they announced the arrival of Duane Darby as their new boss and he will take charge for the first time at Peterborough Sports on Saturday.

As a player Darby amassed over 400 senior appearances, scoring over 100 times at clubs including Hull City, Doncaster Rovers and Notts County. However, it was at Rushden & Diamonds where he made the biggest impact, helping their promotion to the Football League and himself a `golden boot` in 2001.

Darby is no stranger to the Midlands non-League circuit, having played for the likes of Hednesford Town, Alvechurch and Nuneaton Borough.

He was also manager at Bromsgrove Rovers and enjoyed a short spell with Cradley Town.

Redditch chairman Chris Swan told https://www.rufcofficial.co.uk: “I am very excited to announce Duane as our new manager. When we met it was clear that Duane had a drive and passion that will be infectious to us all. At this point in the season we now need to fight for every point and I am very confident Duane can set our dressing room up to push us higher up in the League over the coming months.”

Darby said: “I am really looking forward to the challenge. We have a plan to get this club moving forward again and this will see us engage more with the fans to create a style of football that they want to see and put some much-needed points on the board.

“We’re very aware of the talent within the current squad, our league position could have been very different had some of the narrow results swung our way. We’ve identified a handful of new players we’d like to speak to over the next week and the Reds fans should be seeing some exciting new additions announced very soon.

“I am keen to work as a manager not just with the first team, but to help the whole club develop. I am very eager to engage with the club’s academy and reserve set up to develop players from within the club. This is exactly what a club like ours should be doing”.