Hednesford Town return to action quickly with a home game this evening against local rivals Stourbridge with both teams having achieved their first point of the season on Saturday. The Pitmen overcame an opening day defeat with a hard earned 1-1 draw at Mickleover whilst the Glassboys also managed a 1-1 draw at home to Tamworth after they were beaten on the opening day by Alvechurch. Aside from the results, Stourbridge have had difficulty in both of their first two matches with first half red cards for Reece Styche against Alvechurch and Alex Moore against Tamworth putting them at a numerical disadvantage for over half of both games.
A couple of our best performances of last season came home and away against Stourbridge as we won 2-1 away in the second game of last season whilst a superb debut hat-trick from Leroy Lita saw the Pitmen ease to a 3-1 home win in March.

Stourbridge are jointly managed by club legends Stuart Pierpoint and Leon Broadhurst. They took over last season with the club in the relegation zone only to galvanise the squad and end the season in 11th place. A number of players left Stourbridge at the end of last season with the departures of Kieran Cook (Leamington), Ben O’Hanlon (Ilkeston), Kyle Rowley (Barwell), Lathaniel Rowe-Turner (Nuneaton), Dan Gyasi (Redditch), George Forsyth and James McQuilkin. The club also welcomed a host of new signings with winger Rackeem Reid and midfielder Alex Moore both arriving from Rushall, defensive midfielder Callum Gittings from Leamington, central defender Joel Kettle coming to the club from Bromsgrove and defender Alex Worley, who came through the youth set up at Walsall and ended last season at Haverfordwest County.

Pitmen fans will need no introduction to last season’s 18 goal top scorer and the managers’ and supporters’ player of the season Reece Styche and also combative midfielder Reece King, both former Hednesford Town players. Their squad oozes quality and experience with the likes of striker Jason Cowley, former Solihull and Tamworth player Darryl Knights, defender Lee Vaughan spent most of his career at AFC Telford and Kidderminster and winger Greg Mills, who thankfully is back from the serious injury he suffered against us in August last season.

With both teams looking to kick-start their season with their first win, we should be in for an entertaining game not to be missed!