Hednesford Town’s Southern League Premier Central division campaign continues today when the Pitmen travel to Cambridgeshire to face St Ives Town. The Pitmen will be hoping to bounce back from Tuesday’s loss at Stourbridge which resulted in a 3-1 defeat despite an impressive showing in the first half.
St Ives are currently 15th in the league table with 21 points from 16 games, but they are 18th in the form table with five points from their last six games. St Ives’ average home attendance is 210 which is the lowest in the league apart from Leiston and Kings Langley. Their most recent result was a 1-1 draw last Saturday at home to Needham Market who scored a last-minute equaliser. St Ives’ leading goalscorer is Jonathan Edwards with 10 league goals and they have one former Pitman in their squad with Enoch Andoh currently playing for them.
St Ives Town spent many seasons playing in the United Counties League until promotions in 2012/13 and 2015/16 saw them reach this level of football. Since then they have had four completed seasons and 13th has been their highest league position. Their manager Ricky Marheineke has been at the club since May 2014 and is one of the longest serving managers in Non-League football.
Hednesford have an unbeaten record at this ground after a 1-1 draw in March 2020 was followed by a 4-2 win in October 2021. The Pitmen are ten points from safety with 24 games left and need to start picking up wins soon. Hednesford will still be without the injured duo of Riley O’Sullivan and Chris Clements. The Pitmen also have a few “walking wounded” after the Stourbridge game on Tuesday but nothing major to report. Chris Clements trained last night and completed the session so the management team will wait to see how he recovers over the next few days with a view to ramping up his rehab next week.
Looking back at the Stourbridge game on Tuesday, the Pitmen had a bright first half in which a number of chances were created and efforts saved by the home keeper and the management team said: “We were disappointed after Tuesday as it was another game that we started really well and with a bit of luck we could have been two up but again we conceded some sloppy goals that were preventable. We still believe we are not far away if we can cut out the mistakes and make ourselves a lot harder to beat that will give us the platform to go and win games.”
Hednesford’s on-loan goalkeeper Tiernan Brooks has been a revelation since he joined the Pitmen in September and has saved a penalty in each of the last two games and as it stands his loan ends in January unless it gets extended and the management team have heaped praise on the 19 year old: “Brooksy has been superb for us and the lad has a big future in the game. Hednesford have been blessed with some wonderful goalkeepers over the years and Brooksy deserves to be mentioned amongst the likes of Dan Crane, Scott Cooksey and James Wren.”
The Pitmen are looking for their first away win of the season and that could be all the players need to improve their confidence and start a run towards safety.
Ground address: St Ives Town Football Club, Quattro-Tech Westwood Road, St Ives, Cambridgeshire, PE27 6DT
