Bank Holiday Monday sees Chasetown make the five-mile journey to Keys Park on August 26th when Hednesford will entertain their nearest rivals in a Northern Premier League West Division clash. Both teams pulled off impressive wins on Saturday, Hednesford coming back from a one goal half-time deficit to win 6-2 at Runcorn Linnets (Rob Stevenson, Dan Trickett-Smith and Sion Spence scoring three goals in eight second half minutes before a Manny Duku penalty and a brace from Zidan Sutherland completed the job) while Chasetown beat nine-man Avro 3-0 after Deane Smalley and Mike Phenix were sent off for the Oldham based visitors. The results saw Hednesford catapulted to the top of the table on goal difference from Bootle while Chasetown moved up to 12th following their first league win of the season.
There will be plenty of familiar faces in the Chasetown squad on Monday- Sam Wilding, Joe Thompson, Sam Griffiths, Danny Glover, Kris Taylor and George Cater have all spent time at Keys Park. Cater is in fact the club’s leading scorer so far this season along side Jack Langston. They both have three goals.
The two sides met three times last season. A 1-1 draw at Keys Park was followed by a goalless draw at The Scholars Ground on New Years Day before Chasetown won a Walsall Senior Cup semi-final by the odd goal in five in April, going on to lose 1-4 to Rushall Olympic in the final. The attendances for those three games were 1486, 2031 and 1287 respectively.
Pitmen manager Steve King had this to say about the game “They are always special occasions when you face your local rivals, and I’m sure today’s derby will be no different. The atmosphere is sure to be electric, and with a big crowd expected, we’re looking forward to what should be a fantastic contest”.
Admission is £11 adults, £8 concessions, £8 disabled with carer, £3 10–17-year-olds with under 10’s free. 10–12-year-olds and under 10’s must be accompanied by an adult. This can be paid by cash or card on the gate or in advance through the Fanbase App. Car parking is £3 cash only and the treble award-winning programme will be on sale at £2.50. Kick off will be at 3pm with gates open at 1pm.
