King pleased as Hednesford dig in to advance in FA Cup
Hednesford Town boss Steve King saw his side ease their way into the next round of the FA Cup and then praised his players for showing their strength against ‘robust’ opponents.
Goals from strike pair Jake Jervis and Manny Duke handed the Pitmen a 2-1 interval lead at RC Warwick– all the goals coming in a frenetic three-minute period – before they dominated the second half and wrapped up the tie with further efforts from Jacob Gwilt and Kory Roberts, writes Dave Lawrence.
King said: “After going in front we were bitterly disappointed to concede within a minute but we showed character to come back again just 30 seconds later.
“We have good players but sometimes they have to stand up and be counted and they did that against a robust team that has quite a physical approach.
“If people were ever questioning the other side of our game – they know that technically we are strong – then we showed that we can be strong as well. The quality came through in the end.”
Jervis tucked away a Duke cross for the 26th-minute opener only for Warwick to level straight away through Louis Monaghan.
The visitors bounced back, though, with Duke firing home with both sides going close to adding to the tally at the end of an entertaining first half.
Substitute Zidan Sutherland was denied by a decent save on the hour before Gwilt made it 3-1 10 minutes from time after Sutherland was again denied by the Warwick keeper.
Roberts wrapped things up with 86 minutes on the clock, with keeper Sam Lomax then doing well to keep out Dom McHale in added time.
Chasetown secured a 2-1 extra preliminary round victory over OJM Black Country, who were making their first appearance in the competition.
Chasetown had a promising start with a goal in the seventh minute as Lewi Burnside delivered in a cross and Luke Yates placed it nicely past OJM’S goalkeeper Tom Clapp, writes Lizzie Scott.
The fired up Scholars almost gained another goal just two minutes later when Kieron Fenton went close to a second with a header.
OJM pushed for an equaliser and it needed a fingertip save from Scholars goalkeeper Curtis Pond to keep them at bay.
In the 37th minute, OJM’s Adam Keogh’s was handed a straight red card following a handball.
On the stroke of half-time, George Caters cross was bravely blocked for a corner that was shortly claimed by Tom Clapp leaving the first half score 1-0 to Chasetown.
But OJM were level just after half-time when Micheal Nelson netted.
However, this was short-lived as a Chasetown nosed back in font when George Cater headed home a cross from Luke Yates.
There was no way back for OJM, who were reduced to nine men late on when Zazi saw red.
