Another terrible, abject display from the Pitmen this afternoon leaves them staring down the barrel of almost certain relegation after a woeful performance against mid-table Avro at Keys Park

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Having earned themselves a battling point at promotion-chasing Prescot Cables last weekend, head coach Paul Moore rolled the dice once more for his team's return to Keys Park as he made two changes to his XI; Nathan Delfouneso and Jacob Gwilt both made returns to the side after a spell out, replacing Matthew Barnes-Homer and Lewis Farmer respectively

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Avro had done an excellent job in consolidating their place at step four after promotion last season, sitting in eighth place in the table and still with a glimmer of hope of gate-crashing the play-offs if results in the final three games went their way. Manager Alex Frost made two changes from the side that had started last weekend's surprise 2-1 win over champions Leek as Jake Cottrell and Bebeto Gomes came into the side ahead of Kyle Hawley and Ben Woods

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On a mild but overcast early April afternoon, Avro made a bright start to proceedings with the first effort of the game inside the first minute; Liam Ellis picked the ball up from deep and drove towards the Hednesford penalty area before firing high over the crossbar from twenty yards out as Sam Griffiths closed him down

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Gomes was looking a threat early on for the away side, making several darting runs in behind the Hednesford defence as Avro looked to hit the hosts with early long balls forward, much as Nantwich had done so on Bank Holiday Monday. One such run from the former Stalybridge man on six minutes saw him hold off the attentions of Michael Williams, forcing Griffiths to come across and eventually clear the ball before Gomes could get his shot away to the left-hand side of the penalty area

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Avro midfielder Jamie Rother was subject to a lengthy spell of treatment in the eighth minute as he clashed heads with Thorley in the centre circle and required a few moments of intense scrutiny from the physio before he got back to his feet and continued

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The Pitmen had been slow to get into the game with a sluggish opening period, personified on twelve minutes by some lazy positioning from Delfouneso that saw him flagged for offside after he picked up James McQuilkin's pass twenty yards from goal

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Jake Jervis picked up the game's first booking of the afternoon on fifteen minutes as he was shown a yellow card by referee Mr Biggin for petulantly kicking the ball away after Avro were awarded a free-kick

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Jai Verma - playing through the pain for the cause as he nursed a long-standing injury - looked to get in behind the Avro defence two minutes later with a tricky run down the left, twisting and turning past Cheikh Thiam and leaving him for dead before his low cross towards the incoming Jervis was turned behind by old stager Luca Havern for a Hednesford corner kick

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From Jack Kelly's outswing corner kick, Michael Williams looked to attack the ball at the far post but the cross appeared to get caught in the gusty crosswind and took it away from the veteran defender and out of play on the Wimblebury side of the ground

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Avro were handed the lead on twenty-one minutes as the Pitmen were forced into yet another defensive mishap at the back; full-back Thiam did brilliantly to bamboozle Tom Thorley down the right wing, showing great skill to beat the midfielder before and whipped in a cross to the far post, where Michael Williams managed to get goal side of Gomes but could only turn the ball into his own net from close-range with a miscued header

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Before the game could restart, Avro were forced into making an early change as Rother - still struggling with the head injury he had picked up earlier - came off and was replaced by Darren McKnight in midfield

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The hosts were also forced into an earlier-than-expected change on twenty-six minutes as Delfouneso clattered into the hoardings on the Wimblebury side of the pitch after a challenge from Cottrell and immediately indicated to the bench that he needed to come off; he was replaced by Barnes-Homer up front

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Sixty seconds later, Verma managed to win the Pitmen a free-kick to the left of the penalty area after being brought down by Thiam. Thorley and Kelly stood over the ball, with Kelly taking the kick after much discussion but lifting his kick way, way too high for anyone in a white shirt to reach at the far post and the ball was cleared by David Fitzpatrick

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On thirty-three minutes, sloppy play from Kelly saw him cheaply run the ball over the byeline for an Avro corner as he looked to clear his lines down the left. Cottrell floated in the resultant corner kick to the far post, where former Altrincham centre-back Havern headed home unchallenged from a yard or so out and doubled Avro's lead with a simple glancing header. Terrible, terrible defending from the Pitmen once more
 

Jervis looked to get the misfiring hosts going with a powerful run into the box straight from the restart, holding off the challenge of Fitzpatrick but electing to cut the ball back towards Gwilt rather than shoot and watched as the slightly-built utility man was far too easily shoved off the ball by James Dwyer

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Gomes continued to give the Hednesford defence the runaround, making a bustling run through the centre of the hosts' defence on thirty-eight minutes as he held off Michael Williams and bounced off McQuilkin before he ran out of pitch and scuffed his attempted cross wide of goal

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The Pitmen's one and only effort a a shockingly poor first half came in the forty-fourth minute as Kelly's corner kick dropped into the Avro box and at the feet of Adriano Moke, whose clipped ball back into the danger zone was turned goalwards by Verma, only for Havern to track back and clear the shot off the line

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There were muffled boos and plenty of discontent amongst the home fans at the half time whistle, having seen their side fail to lay a finger on a strong, fit and organised Avro side, something that they have had thirty-six games to learn how to match but still seem to be as naive today as they were on the opening day of the season; a major factor in the club's imminent relegation has been the utter lack of fight and ability to 'mix it' with the other, more established teams in the division this season

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There was a tweak in formation for the hosts at the start of the second half as Verma and Jervis switched flanks, with Verma having had no change out to the athletic and strong Thiam on the left so was switched to the right to try his luck against Fitzpatrick, with the taller Jervis looking to take on Thiam down the other side

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Avro made their second change of the afternoon just five minutes after the restart as the experienced Matty Crothers came on in midfield ahead of Aaron Grewal

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Another Cottrell corner kick on the right caused the inexperienced Rhys Williams issues in goal for the Pitmen a minute later as he was beaten to the cross by Havern, only for Mr Biggin to pull up the centre back for a foul on the stopper in the build-up after the teenager had failed to get any purchase on the cross

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Ellis looked to add to Avro's tally on fifty-two minutes as he once again managed to bully Griffiths off a long ball forward, taking the ball down before dragging his low effort well wide of Rhys Williams' right-hand post from just outside the penalty area

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The visitors put the game out of the Pitmen's reach with a killer third goal on fifty-six minutes courtesy of another deep cross into the penalty area that the home side failed to deal with yet again; a free-kick from Crothers on the left was floated to the far post, where Rhys Williams flapped at the cross and allowed former Stalybridge Celtic man Dwyer to head into the empty net from a couple of yards out. Far too easy once again and another terrible example of the home side's porous defending

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Back came the shell-shocked Pitmen, with Kelly curling in a free-kick from the right on fifty-six minutes that was cleared as far as Gwilt, whose unconvincing stab at goal from ten yards out was cleared off the line by Fitzpatrick before Griffiths' follow-up at the far post was dragged well wide of goal

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Havern followed Jervis into Mr Biggin's notebook shortly after the hour mark as he was finally penalised for a succession of niggly fouls and shirt-pulling at set-pieces

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Three minutes later, the hapless hosts made their second substitution of the afternoon as they brought on striker Eden Bailey in place of midfielder Thorley as they moved to two up top

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On sixty-eight minutes, Avro opened up the Pitmen with ease down the left as Dwyer rolled the ball into the path of Rother, in acres of space to run into with no one in white tracking back. Fortunately for the hosts, his curling effort lacked power as was claimed by Rhys Williams down to his left

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Rhys Williams' heart was in his mouth on sixty-nine minutes as he raced out of his box to challenge Ellis after the striker ran in behind the static Hednesford defence and took the ball around the stopper before taking a tumble to the ground. Mr Biggin reached for his pocket but instead of showing a red card to the young stopper as many in the ground feared, he showed a yellow card to former Mossley man Ellis for a blatant dive

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With twenty minutes remaining, the vastly experienced Deane Smalley - a player with plenty of Football League experience under his belt - came on to shore up the Vulcans' defence as he replaced Ellis

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The Pitmen were seeing more of the ball at this point but simply weren't creating anything in the way of even a half-chance as Avro continually eased them off the ball and took full advantage of constant sloppy passing, with Thorley, McQuilkin and Jervis the key perpetrators. On seventy-three minutes, Moke had to drop back and help out his defence after McQuilkin's lazy out ball fell straight at the feet of Gomes, who looked to take the ball back into the box before the Portuguese midfielder took the ball away from him

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Two minutes later, a poor clearance from Rhys Williams - put under pressure by a lazy and under-hit backpass from namesake Michael - landed at the feet of McKnight, who couldn't sort out his feet in time and was robbed of the ball by a timely Griffiths challenge to stop the substitute from slotting the ball into the empty net from twenty-five yards out

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Three corner kicks in a row for the Pitmen once again failed to break the Avro back line, with goalkeeper Grant Shenton well protected by an experienced and well-drilled back line that easily dealt with meagre crosses from Kelly and Gwilt on both flanks

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Jervis made a forceful run into the box off the right flank on eighty-one minutes, driving past two challenges before going to ground under a tackle from Thiam a yard or so inside the penalty area. Despite the former Birmingham City man's pleas and outstretched arms, Mr Biggin gestured for him to get back to his feet and play continued

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The Pitmen's final change of the afternoon came with seven minutes remaining and the game petering out as the hard-running but limited Gwilt was replaced by Farmer

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Shenton was finally called upon to make his first save of the afternoon on eighty-seven minutes as Jervis picked up a half-cleared McQuilkin cross twelve yards from goal, twisting and turning before drilling in a weak low shot that the Avro stopper claimed low down to his left

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Substitute Smalley picked up a late yellow card from Mr Biggin for a foul on Jervis, allowing Kelly to whip in the resultant free-kick and test the reflexes of Shenton once more, with the burly stopper tipping the shot over the crossbar for a late corner kick to the Pitmen

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Despite defeat for Trafford at Witton Albion, the Pitmen's relegation will be rubber-stamped next weekend if they fail to beat Clitheroe and Trafford earn at least a point at Kidsgrove Athletic. The PPG table at step four is also tightening up, with the Pitmen still hanging on to their potential reprieve by the smallest of margins. Victory in either of their final two games will most likely earn them their reprieve but if Moore's team turn in a performance akin to today's then this may be something they ultimately miss out on, with other sides in the lateral leagues picking up points today and narrowing the PPG gap on the Pitmen

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Hednesford Town: R. Williams, McQuilkin, Kelly, M. Williams, Griffiths ©, Thorley (Bailey 66) Verma, Moke, Delfouneso (Barnes-Homer 26), Gwilt (Farmer 83), Jervis ▆      Subs Unused: Berks, Morley

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Avro: Shenton, Thiam, Fitzpatrick, Cottrell, Dwyer, Havern © ▆, Kershaw, Rother (McKnight 21), Gomes, Ellis ▆ (Deane Smalley 70▆ ), Grewal (Crothers 50)       Subs Unused:  Rathbone, Woods

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