Hednesford Town Football Club - Hednesford Town 4-2 Boston United

Hednesford Town made a welcome return to the Play-Off places in the Skrill North after their festive struggles with a superb team performance, one much more reminiscent of the team playing with joyful abandon in the Autumn, topped off by four goals and the jump to further prominence of two players.

Kidderminster Harriers loanee, Nathan Blissett, provided the majority of the problems Boston United experienced against The Pitmen, who also saw Jamey Osborne, their hugely influential midfielder, make a shock recovery from injury to put in a very encouraging performance.

Hednesford boss Rob Smith admitted his surprise at Osborne passing a late fitness test but believed his return was one of a number of positives to take from a first league victory since December 17th.

‘When I arrived at the ground this morning I wasn’t expecting Jamey to play but he passed a fitness test and gave a boost to everyone. Nathan Blissett was outstanding today as well, he needs to find consistency in his game but I thought, credit to Boston for attacking us, the game was a fantastic match for the neutral and a great result for us.’

It was Marvin Robinson who opened the scoring for The Pitmen on 13 minutes when Blissett won the initial aerial challenge, Robinson sprayed the ball out wide to Elliott Durrell who crossed for the striker to head past Lewis King.

With Jamey Osborne impressive in central midfield, Hednesford played in a very positive manner and, after Robinson had again latched onto a Blissett flick and forced Boston to hack clear of their line, the lead was doubled when statuesque defending at the back post left Paul McCone free to head into the net on 27 minutes.

The visitors were not about to lie down though and their man of the match, Ricky Miller, halved the deficit on 31 minutes with a smart turn and shot past Dan Crane.

While The Pilgrims’ vocal supporters were still celebrating the goal Blissett turned brilliantly and crossed for substitute Neil Harvey to tap in at the back post as Hednesford immediately hit back and that third strike proved pivotal.

Blissett deservedly added a goal to an all action performance just after half time when he finished smartly from a Tom Thorley through ball and, with Osborne taken off as a precaution, the home side coasted towards victory.

A Miller consolation and late Boston pressure was repelled by Hednesford as they made a welcome return to the top five with Boston no doubt hoping their injury list reduces quickly.

The Pitmen welcome ex-Football League club Stockport County to Keys Park on Tuesday night, 7.45pm kick off, before making the journey to Bradford Park Avenue on Saturday 18th January.

Hednesford Town
Crane, Disney, Campion (c), McCone (27), Francis (Bailey 68), Thorley, Osborne (Taylor 54), Durrell, Robinson(13) (Harvey 21 (32)), Blissett (46), Thompson-Brown

Subs Not Used
Woolfe, MacPherson

Boston United
King, Agnew, Pritchard, Marshall (Dongo 80), Galinski, Piergianni, Ross (c) (Reed 46), Milnes, Miller (31, 63), Newsham, Njie (Gascoigne 53)

Subs Not Used
Ward, Vince

Bookings – Piergianni

Star Man – Nathan Blissett
Entertainment Rating – 5 Stars
Attendance – 650
Referee – Mr O Bickle