Hednesford Town return to the RACE stadium tomorrow when we welcome high flying visitors Leiston in the Southern League Central Premier Division.
Leiston are currently third in the league table with 25 points from 13 matches, having won seven and lost only two, and they are second in the form table only behind Tamworth. Their most recent results have been impressive with a 7-1 win against Bromsgrove and a 5-1 win against AFC Rushden & Diamonds either side of a 1-1 home draw against Stourbridge, who equalised four minutes into injury time. Their top scorer is striker William Davies who has scored nine league goals so far this season. Leiston is a town in Suffolk just two miles in from the North Sea coast and is 21 miles to the north-east of Ipswich.
Last season we produced one of our better performances of the season here at the RACE stadium when we comfortably beat Leiston 4-0 in December, with two goals from Josh Endall, a goal from Todd Parker and a penalty from Courtney Richards doing the damage. A couple of months earlier we went down to a 1-2 defeat in Suffolk despite taking a first half lead through Andre Brown.
Leiston ended the season finishing in 7th place just two places above but with six points more than the Pitmen.
Hednesford will be looking to take their sparkling FA Trophy form into the league games having scored eight goals in two cup matches against Rushall and Stourbridge. The Pitmen have picked up six points from their last six league games despite deserving more from their performances but being eight points from safety after 15 games it is clear that the wins need to start coming soon.
The Pitmen’s squad was added to last night with the signing of 22 year old Dutch defender Levi Andoh, although defenders Mason Birch and Martin Riley have since left the club.
Apart from the long term injured Riley O’Sullivan, the Pitmen will also be without midfielder Chris Clements tomorrow due to a groin strain which will keep him out for a few weeks. Otherwise there is a fully fit and available squad to pick from. The Pitmen will be looking for more of the attacking power of recent signing Stanley Obinna Anaebonam after his two goals against Stourbridge last time out and the management team said: “Stanley has done well but there is more to come once he is fully fit.”
Whilst the Pitmen’s league position remains the same since the current management team arrived the team have scored a lot more goals and look threatening in attack but conceding goals one after another has been a problem as evidenced in the games against Coalville, Royston and Stourbridge. On this matter the management team said: “Clean sheets are always the target and we know we should be doing better as a team defensively and that will come once we get a settled team.”
With 16 goals scored in the last three games at the RACE stadium it is certainly the place to be at the moment for footballing entertainment so if you can why not get to the stadium tomorrow to cheer the lads on to the three points.
