Hednesford 1 Stourbridge 2 - Report and pictures
Stourbridge were Saturday’s visitors to the PRG Stadium at Keys Park as Hednesford Town continued their BetVictor Premier League Central campaign.
After two successive defeats on their own turf, the Pitmen were looking to get their home form back on track, after taking seven points in three games on their travels.
The Glassboys had won their last three games and sat two places behind the ninth-placed Pitmen. When the sides met at the War Memorial Stadium in August, the Pitmen took the points with three first half goals.
Unusually the Pitmen kicked off the first half attacking the Heath Hayes end. A fairly even opening was punctuated by two early fouls on Glassboys' skipper Tom Tonks by James Hurst who went into the referee's book for his troubles.
It was Tonks who opened up the scoring in the 16th minute when he finished a mazy run with a low drive past Shaun Rowley from the right of the home area. The Pitmen had some justifiable complaints about the goal as it appeared a defender was pushed over in the build up.
Hurst came close to an equalizer when his shot from outside the left corner of the visitors area drifted agonisingly wide of the far post with Charlie Price beaten. Osebi Abadaki had a decent shout for a penalty waved away by the referee before Ben O'Hanlon sent in a decent cross from the left, Price gathered the ball despite an aerial challenge from Glover who was booked for the incident.
The Pitmen got straight back into the game at the start of the second half with Ben Bailey getting on then end of Hodge's corner to produce a close range finish at the near post.
Before the hour mark the Pitmen were reduced to ten men when Hurst made one foul too many and received his marching orders. Moments later a Glover played an intelligent ball to put Hodge through on goal, a heavy touch prevented the attacker from producing a high quality shot and his effort went inches over the crossbar.
The Glassboys' numerical advantage paid off in the 68th minute when Jamie Willets towered above everyone else to head home from a corner to regain the visitors' lead.
The Pitmen fought hard for an equaliser but were unable to create a breakthrough as the three points headed back to Stourbridge.
Hednesford Town: Rowley, Curley, O'Hanlon, Bailey (c), Griffiths, Gatter, Hodge (Sanali 74), King, Glover, Hurst, Abadaki (Reid 85).Subs not used; Fry, Jones, Veiga
Stourbridge:Price: Ezewele, Carter, Hayward, Willets, Brown, Bellis (Birch 53), Tonks (C), Dwyer, Grocott (Tilt 83) Nicholls (Landell 19). Subs not used;Tilt, Turton, Birch, Fisher.
Attendance: 515
