Hednesford town start a run of three league games in six days on Tuesday night when Kidsgrove Athletic visit Keys Park before a trip to Runcorn Linnets on Saturday and a local derby at home to Chasetown on Bank Holiday Monday. Both Hednesford and Kidsgrove advanced to the First Qualifying Round of the FA Cup last Saturday with wins over step 5 opposition, Hednesford beating Worcester Raiders 1-0 thanks to a late Dom McHale goal while Kidsgrove had an impressive 6-0 win at Atherstone.
In the league it’s two out of two for The Pitmen with wins over Vauxhall Motors and Nantwich Town while The Grove have won one and lost one, following up an opening day 0-3 defeat at Widnes with a 4-0 home victory over Witton Albion last Tuesday. Their leading scorers are Kingsley Adu-Gyamfil with four goals (three in the FA Cup), Robbie Hatton with three (all in the FA Cup) and Richie Sutton with two (both in the league). Many Hednesford fans will of course remember Richie Sutton who had a spell with us last season, starting 15 games and scoring one goal, ironically at Kidsgrove and Star Mayemba who will also be in the visitors’ squad. He made five starts last season plus 12 as sub, scoring two goals.
Last season Kidsgrove won their opening seven league games including a 4-2 win at Champions Leek Town but eventually finished in 18th place, just seven points above the relegation places. In the corresponding fixture last season Kidsgrove came away from Keys Park with a 3-2 win. Max Dixon opened the scoring in the 31st minute for the home side before Josh Thorpe equalised. Rivel Mardenborough restored the lead but two goals in the last 20 minutes gave the visitors all three
points.
Jake Jervis starts a two-match suspension on Tuesday while long term injury Josh Endall is still missing as is Jacob Gwilt. Simeon Maye is hoping to be fit enough to return to the squad. Manager Steve King said “Saturday’s game was not the best quality wise. We should have been out of sight in the first five or ten minutes. We had 42 crosses and 27 shots and should have had two penalties. Kidsgrove will be a handful, they have some good players, some of which I know personally. It’ll be a tough game but I’m looking forward to it”.
Admission is £11 adults, £8 concession, £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 multi award winning programme will be on sale at £2.50. Kick off will be at 7.45pm.
