Hednesford Town play one of their games in hand over North Ferriby on Thursday night when they welcome Kendal Town to Keys Park in a match, which following their dramatic 2-2 draw with Rushall Olympic on Easter Monday, simply must be won if The Pitmen are to continue to harbour any hopes of catching North Ferriby at the top of the Evo-Stik Northern Premier Division.
Boss Rob Smith was both philosophical and positive when reflecting on the Rushall game and was in no way conceding the title to The Villagers just yet, despite the current eight point gap.
‘Monday’s game summed up football sometimes but it’s not a case of picking the players up because, in horrendous conditions, we put on a really strong second half performance and showed tremendous spirit.
‘We just need to carry that spirit on, a draw at Rushall, a win against Buxton and four points from two very difficult games is an excellent return. Of course Ferriby are in the box seat but if we win our two games in hand the gap is two points which doesn’t give them much room for error.’
Striker Neil Harvey limped off in the first half at Dales Lane, he will not be fit for Thursday night and Dave MacPherson is suspended along with doubts continuing about Nathan Woolfe’s hamstring injury.
Smith will be calling upon two younger members of the Hednesford set-up to step up to the substitutes bench on Thursday night, but he is confident the attacking options he used to such effect on Easter Monday show that the squad can cope.
‘We will call up Charlie Ntamark from the youth team and Scott Meer from the U21’s, but I think the performances of Aaron Rey and both scorers Kyle Patterson and Sean O’Connor showed the joy of having attacking options on the bench.’
Since losing 3-1 to Hednesford last Tuesday, Kendal have continued their abysmal run of form, shipping five goals each to Chorley and FC United over the Easter weekend, with the Lake District outfit having lost ten matches in succession, conceding 37 goals in the process.
The Pitmen will need to put Monday’s drama behind them and a convincing victory over Kendal will move them to within five points of North Ferriby with a tricky away fixture at Marine on Saturday swiftly following tomorrow’s game.
Pitmen Form – DLWWWD
Previous Result – Rushall Olympic 2 Hednesford Town 2 – Evo-Stik Northern Premier Division – Monday 1st April 2013
Next Fixture – Marine (A) – Evo-Stik Northern Premier Division – Saturday 6th April 2013
League Position – 2nd
Kendal Town Form – LLLLLL
Previous Result – Chorley 5 Kendal Town 0 – Evo-Stik Northern Premier Division – Monday 1st April 2013
Next Fixture – Whitby Town (A) – Evo-Stik Northern Premier Division – Saturday 6th April 2013
League Position – 21st
KO – 7.45pm
Address of Ground – Keys Park, Keys Park Road, Hednesford, WS12 2DZ
