The Pitmen's recent run of good form continued this afternoon as they recorded their second win of the season in a bad-tempered game against F.A. Trophy winners Kingstonian at Keys Park

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Having been left frustrated in Monday night's goalless draw over Morecambe, manager John Baldwin made one change to his side for today's second home game in succession as the fit-again Mark Haran replaced Scott Goodwin in defence. Skipper Neil Pointon had shaken off his hamstring issue and was passed fit, as was Neil Davis who was sporting a bandage on his head to protect the four stitches he had received at the end of Monday night's game after a clash of heads with Morecambe goalkeeper Mark Smith

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Geoff Chapple's Kingstonian side had started the season as a much-fancied side but had thus far failed to live up to expectations as they lay in mid-table, only a point above today's hosts after a poor 3-1 defeat at Forest Green Rovers on Wednesday night. Chapple made three changes to his starting line-up for their second away game in four days as Sammy Winston replaced Ronnie Green up front, defender Eddie Saunders came in for the injured Derek Allan and David Bass was preferred to Eddie Akuamoah

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Pointon won the coin toss and elected to play with the considerably gusty wind behind them in the first half to try and gain an early advantage. The conditions were problematic for both sides in the opening exchanges, with misplaced passes all over the park contributing to a fragmented first ten minutes

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The Pitmen had the first sight at goal in the sixth minute of the game as Cooper's quickly-taken corner kick from the right found Davis, who returned the ball to Cooper to change the angle for the midfielder; his curling cross fell at the feet of Val Owen, who skewed his first-time shot from ten yards out wide of goal

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Kingstonian responded through the talented Geoff Pitcher in the tenth minute, with the midfield man making a surging run from deep before playing a delightful pass out to Mark Boyce on the right flank. The winger's deep cross found newly-appointed skipper Gary Patterson, whose downward header drifted wide of Mark Gayle's right-hand post as Haran put him under pressure

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Referee Mr Chittenden was to be one of the busiest people on the pitch during the ninety minutes, handing out no fewer than nine yellow cards over the course of the game. The first pair of bookings came in the twelfth minute as a clash between Ian Robinson and Winston right in front of the benches, prompting a bout of pushing and shoving between the two sets of players and earning the pair a booking apiece

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The Pitmen used the gusty conditions to their advantage as they took the lead in the fifteenth minute of the game through Micky Norbury; Saunders' ball out of defence was caught in the wind and fell at the feet of Davis, who slipped the ball into the path of the marauding Owen, twenty-five yards from goal. The former Northwich man could have taken a shot himself against a backpedalling Kingstonian defence as he stepped past Mark Harris but elected to pass to Norbury, who slotted the ball beyond the reach of Richard Hurst in the K's goal from close-range

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Back came the visitors with a perfectly delivered free-kick from Patterson in the eighteenth minute, swinging the ball in from the right-hand corner of the Hednesford penalty area to find the head of Simon Stewart, who had to readjust his positioning to get a touch to the ball but lifted his glancing effort over Gayle's crossbar

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The away side got themselves back on level terms three minutes later as the Pitmen were the architects of their own downfall in defence to gift Kingstonian a bizarre equaliser; Bradley rolled the ball back to Gayle with a slightly under-hit pass that forced the stopper to sprint out of his goal and get to it before the lurking Amara Simba could take advantage. However, Gayle's attempted clearance was charged down by the former France international, who got in the way of the ball and diverted it beyond Gayle and into the net via a touch off his elbow. Despite Gayle's half-hearted protests to Mr Chittenden that Simba had handled the ball, the goal was given

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The patched-up Davis made a run in behind the Kingstonian defence on twenty-five minutes, receiving a pass from Paul Bagshaw and taking Saunders out of position before pulling the ball back into the path of Cooper, whose first-time shot from the edge of the penalty area flew over the crossbar

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The pair combined once more two minutes later to set Owen up for another good chance, with Davis heading Stuart Lake's pass down to his skipper, who in turn squared the ball to Owen twenty yards from goal. The midfielder fired in a powerful left-footed effort that had Hurst scrambling across his goal but dipped wide of the post

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Stewart was the second man in yellow to cop a booking from Mr Chittendsen just before the half-hour mark as his late, clumsy challenge on Davis sent the striker sprawling just inside the Kingstonian half, earning him a yellow card for the foul

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The Pitmen took the lead once more two minutes later as Robinson scored an equally bizarre goal to Kingstonian's leveller just a few minutes earlier. Picking the ball up tight to the right-hand touchline, the auxiliary right-back drifted inside and chipped a cross into the penalty area that caught a gust of wind and lifted the ball over the head of Hurst, dropping into the net just underneath the crossbar at the far post. Robinson received the plaudits from his team-mates but looked a little sheepish about it as it had not been his intention to short from such a distance

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The Pitmen were forced into an early change of personnel at the back on thirty-four minutes as Bradley was forced off holding the back of his right leg and was replaced by Goodwin. This saw a reshuffle in the ranks with Lake once again returning to defence to cover for the loss of Bradley

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Winston - booked in his clash with Robinson earlier on in the half - was lucky not to be shown a second yellow card by Mr Chittenden a minute later as he pushed Robinson over in midfield and took exception to the referee's decision to award the Pitmen a free-kick, getting himself into hot water with the match official but escaping with a severe ticking-off only after he had calmed down. Chapple was even preparing a substitute to replace the fiery midfielder in a bid to avoid going down to ten men, such was the anger perpetrated by Winston at the referee

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Winston was involved again on thirty-six minutes as superb wing play from Simba saw him beat Goodwin for pace and stood up a cross for the incoming midfielder at the far post, with Winston somehow heading wide of goal from close-range with only Gayle to beat

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The Pitmen should have increased their lead on thirty-eight minutes as Pointon found some space down the left and floated a cross over to Norbury at the far post; the striker's first-time volley was slightly off-target, however, and he swept his shot inches wide of Hurst's left-hand post from ten yards out

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Three minutes later, Pointon made another move forwards and was given more time and space to pick Davis out on this occasion with a fine cross from the left that the striker turned goalwards, only to be denied by the legs of the diving Hurst before Stewart completed the clearance

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There was a late sniff at goal for Davis in first-half added time as Patterson's miscued backwards header fell into his path on the edge of the penalty area, with the striker's low, bobbling effort beating Hurst but didn't have enough to carry it over the line and was cleared by Stewart

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The hosts had been good value for their half-time lead, despite the one moment of madness that had led to Simba's equaliser for the visitors. Norbury and Davis had been sprightly up front and were being well supported by Robinson and Cooper from midfield. The visitors elected to make a tactical half-time change as the hapless Saunders was taken off in favour of Akuamoah

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Kingstonian came back out for the second half with more purpose and with the wind now at their backs as they looked to take advantage of the conditions. An inswinging corner kick from Patterson on forty-nine minutes found the head of Harris, whose effort was beaten away by Gayle at his near post. The ball ran out to Norbury, who took a heavy touch as he tried to take the ball past Colin Luckett and only succeeded in hauling the left-back down, earning him a yellow card from Mr Chittenden in the process

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Luckett went within a matter of inches of levelling matters once more for the Ks on fifty-one minutes as he was given time and space by the standoffish Hednesford defence to control Pitcher's pass and strike a crisp left-footed shot from twenty yards out that skipped just wide of Gayle's right-hand post

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More questionable decision-making from the Kingstonian defence on fifty-five minutes saw Hurst blatantly pick up a Stewart back pass inside his own six-yard box to gift the Pitmen a free-kick from close range. With nine Kingstonian players standing on the goal line behind Hurst, Bagshaw had little to aim at from so close in, electing instead to lay the ball off to Goodwin, whose powerful shot from eight yards out came back off the base of the post

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Owen was the latest in a long line of players to pick up a booking just sixty seconds later for a crude challenge on Simba to stop the Frencham from breaking down the right

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Hurst made an excellent save to deny the Pitmen on fifty-eight minutes, but it wasn't a Hednesford player he made a save from as Bagshaw's free-kick took a wicked deflection off David Bass before dropping to Norbury, who saw his goalbound effort ricochet off Harris and towards goal, prompting Hurst into a fine stop to his right-hand side

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On the hour mark, Kingstonian brought the game level once more as a wind-assisted set-piece opened up the hesitant Hednesford defence once more. Luckett's inswinging corner was caught in the breeze, drifting into the path of Harris at the far post to head back across the face of goal and into the path of Winston, who chested the ball down before volleying into the roof of the net from six yards out

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The away side almost turned the game on its head within three minutes of equalising as Akuamoah broke down the left and sent a low cross into the path of Winston, who arrived late at the far post but comically missed his kick at the vital moment with the goal at his mercy. A real let-off for the Pitmen

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Norbury was proving a real thorn in the Kingstonian side with his movement and aggression, dragging Stewart all over the pitch and playing the role of the target man with relish. He got on the end of a drifting cross from Robinson a minute later after getting goal side of Stewart, but could only toe-poke the floated ball wide of goal on the stretch from eight yards out

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On sixty-eight minutes, an errant pass from Stewart almost let Norbury in on goal as his attempted pass to Luckett was intercepted by the striker, whose shot was blocked by his own strike partner Davis before he could get out of the way of the effort form eighteen yards out

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At the other end, Gayle, made a fabulous stop to deny Stewart from another wind-assisted corner kick a minute later, this time from Pitcher, as the ball was headed goalwards by the centre-back from close range and forced the stopper into a flying save to tip the ball over the crossbar for another corner kick

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With nineteen minutes remaining, the Kingstonian defence backed off the flying Owen as he ran into acres of space in front of him before playing a neat slide-rule pass into the path of Davis, whose reverse ball to Goodwin saw the youngster drill a shot high over the crossbar and into the Heath Hayes terrace from the left-hand corner of the penalty area

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The individual errors from both sides were really totting up, with Robinson guilty of a poorly executed clearance out of the six-yard box on seventy-four minutes that caught the wind and looped over the head of Gayle and onto the roof of the net

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Goodwin became booking number six of the afternoon on seventy-six minutes as he felled Simba just inside the Hednesford half, although the winger looked to have made a lot more of what appeared to be an innocent trip than anything more sinister to ensure Goodwin received a yellow card from Mr Chittenden

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With the game still there to be won for either side, it was the Pitmen who seized the initiative once more with nine minutes remaining as man of the match Norbury notched his second goal of the afternoon; after Bass had brought Bagshaw down, Pointon quickly took the resultant free-kick down the left and played it into the path of Davis, whose delightful angled pass found Norbury in behind the dawdling Kingstonian defence. Still with a lot to do and with the angle against him, Norbury brilliantly struck a venomous shot beyond the reach of Hurst and into the net, although the Kingstonian stopper will feel that he should have done better to keep the ball out at his near post. After the Pitmen had celebrated their goal and the ball had been returned to the centre circle, Bass was retrospectively booked by Mr Chittenden for the foul on Bagshaw

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The Pitmen almost grabbed a fourth goal to seal the points three minutes later as Davis got the better of Luckett as he raced onto Lake's long punt forwards, bringing the ball down in the Kingstonian penalty area before firing wide with a right-footed shot

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Pitcher sent Simba away down the with a fine lobbed pass two minutes later, allowing the Frenchman to get to the byeline and pull the ball back to Winston, whose first-time effort was blocked by Haran

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With a minute of normal time remaining, the visitors thought that they had found another equaliser to level the game up for the third time as Pitcher's cross was brought down by Winston in the penalty area before Bass rocketed home a volley on the rebound, only for an offside flag against Winston in the build-up to rule the goal out

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In added time, the two skippers came to blows in midfield after Patterson had tripped Cooper in the centre circle and prompted some unsavoury scenes between both sets of players. Mr Chittenden calmed the players down and was finally able to show the two captains a yellow card apiece for their troubles

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Three very handy points for the Pitmen see them move up to the heady heights of fourteenth place in the Nationwide Conference table, but still only a couple of points away from the sides in the bottom three. Baldwin's in-form side make a first-ever league trip to Dagenham & Redbridge next weekend, looking to upset the form book against the side sitting in fourth place in the table and extend their own unbeaten run to six games in the process

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Hednesford Town: Gayle, Bradley (Goodwin 34 ▆), Pointon ©, Robinson ▆, Lake, Haran, Cooper  ▆, Owen ▆, Davis, Norbury ▆, Bagshaw      Subs Unused: Sedgemore, Airdrie, Shakespeare, Carney

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Kingstonian: Hurst, Boyce, Luckett, Saunders (Akuamoah 45), Stewart ▆ (Basford 90), Harris, Patterson © ▆, Pitcher, Bass ▆ (Green 84), Winston ▆, Simba       Subs Unused: Allan, Kadi

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