Kieran Phillip’s two quickfire first half goals were enough to sink Alfreton in a frustrating 1-2 home defeat to Gloucester City in the Vanarama National League North writes Szymon Gasiorowski.

Gloucester started the game on the front foot with plenty of intent and found themselves in the lead inside the first quarter of an hour.

An outrageous save from George Willis denied the visitors a certain goal, but forward Phillips bundled the ball into the net from the resulting corner.

The 20-year-old doubled the lead ten minutes later with a deft finish past despairing Willis after he was left unmarked following Luke Ward’s mistake.

But the Reds halved the deficit moments later after Brandon Hall fumbled Danny Preston’s curled free kick into his own goal.

Tensions began to rise, and the game threatened to boil over, with plenty of heated challenges flying as both sides pressed for the next goal.

Both sides came out of the break looking positive, and the visitors threatened again soon after through Phillips, who’s tame acrobatic effort was comfortably caught by Willis.

The Reds gained confidence as the half went on, Bailey Hobson tried his luck from range, but the keeper produced a routine save.

Billy Heath’s men were dumbfounded as to how they did not find themselves level seconds later, after the visitors cleared two goal bound efforts off the line in quick succession.

Tom Denton came agonisingly close to finding the back of the net with a clever header late on, but his effort went whiskers wide of Hall’s post.

Steve King’s men disrupted the rhythm of the game in the dying embers as the Tigers held on for their second successive league victory in a row to leapfrogged Alfreton in the table.

Defeat for the Reds meant they dropped to tenth, whilst Gloucester climbed up to sixth.