Hednesford boss seeing best of duo

Hednesford manager Rob Smith today backed his January additions to start bearing fruit as the club prepare for their fixture list to go into single figures.

The third-placed Pitmen will have nine games left to seal their Evo-Stik Northern Premier League play-off place after Saturday's visit of Northwich.

The stakes are high going into the promotion clash at Keys Park with both sides locked on 61 points with Chorley, who are fourth on goal difference.

Northwich have already missed one chance to get a grip on second spot, after they were surprisingly beaten 4-1 at mid-table Kendal on Tuesday.

Martin Foyle's men still have two games in hand but Smith's side could strike another off at their visitors expense with a home win on Saturday.

And the Pitmen boss believes he's starting to get the best out of defender Jermaine Johnson and striker Mark Beesley, after their arrival last month.

Johnson has struck up a rapport in central defence with the highly-rated Cheyenne Dunkley, who was on trial at Championship club Birmingham.

Beesley scored in last Saturday's 2-0 win at Whitby after six goalless games for the club, adding to 13 for Burscough earlier in the season.

Smith said: "Jermaine is getting better with each game and there is a good partnership building with him and Cheyenne.

"It was also great to see 'Bees' score, he has deserved that for his overall work and performances in the past few weeks."

The Whitby win was more than just relief for Beesley but lifted a huge weight off the back of Smith and the club as a whole.

The team had gone five games without a win since last month's victory at leaders Chester, the hosts' only home defeat of the season in the league.

Two points in that period allowed the rest of the chasing pack to play catch up on the Pitmen, who were level on points with Chester after beating them.

Saturday's clash is just their fourth home game in the league this year and Smith admitted long spells on the road have proved tough on the players.

He said: "The dressing room wasn't getting carried away, that's for sure. I think it was more a relief than anything.

"Away from home, you expect to come under pressure at times and we discussed this before the game last Saturday.

"Overall, I felt that we coped well with what Whitby threw at us and scored two quality goals."