Hednesford Town return home to Keys Park tonight when they welcome St Ives Town for the first time ever. This is the third season in a row that Hednesford and St Ives have been in the Southern League Central Division and we have travelled to St Ives twice during that period. However, due to the pandemic curtailing the last two seasons St Ives have never managed to get to Keys Park as the fixtures were scheduled after the two seasons had been postponed.
We have an unbeaten record against our visitors as two goals from Chay Tilt and one each from Riley O’Sullivan and Shaquille Master saw the Pitmen recover from being a goal down and a penalty miss to win 4-2 earlier this season, after a 1-1 draw there in season 2019/20.
After the narrow loss to league leaders Banbury United on Saturday, the Pitmen will be looking to get back on track against a St Ives side who are only one of two teams to have beaten runaway leaders Banbury this season.
St Ives Town are from Cambridgeshire and the town sits 12 miles to the north-west of Cambridge. The club spent 28 seasons in the Step 5 United Counties League from 1985 until 2014 and then secured two promotions in four seasons to reach this level.
The Pitmen have slipped to bottom but one of the form table with just four points taken from their last six games.
St Ives have taken eight points and are mid-table in the form guide but they won their last game with a 3-2 home win over Nuneaton Borough to give them some breathing space ahead of the relegation zone. St Ives are 16th in the league table but are only four points behind the Pitmen in 11th having played a game more. St Ives’ leading goalscorer is Nabil Shariff with ten league goals, followed by Liam Cross, Dylan Williams, Edmund Hottor and Ben Toseland with four goals each, but they have conceded more goals than any other team in the division with 79 goals, having conceded seven each in home matches against Peterborough and Royston and four or more in five other matches.
The Pitmen will be looking to take advantage of this and get back to winning ways in this eagerly anticipated Southern League Central Premier Division clash.
Kick off is at 7.45pm
