The two sides will have to do it all again on Tuesday night at Keys Park after trading four goals in today's F.A. Cup second qualifying round game at Butlin Road

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Hednesford manager Steve King was looking for a response from his side after their tame 1-0 reverse at Mossley on Tuesday night dropped them to fourth place in the Northern Premier League West table. King made two changes to his side for their trip to Warwickshire as fit-again Jack Bearne came in for Jake Jervis and Omar Holness replaced Sion Spence in central midfield. There was a first appearance of the season among the substitutes for Josh Endall, who had recovered from his long-term injury sufficiently to be considered by the Pitmen

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Rugby - currently sitting in a mid-table position in the Northern Premier League Midland - came into today's tie off the back of an unexpected 5-1 hammering at Loughborough Students in midweek. Manager Carl Adams - a former Hednesford player some twenty-two years ago now - made three changes of his own as Dan Summerfield, Harrison Nee and Hilton Arthur came in for Barry Fitzharris, ex-Hednesford favourite Chris Clements and long-serving David Kolodynski. Also in Adams' starting XI at centre-back were former Hednesford duo Liam Francis and Mike McGrath, with McGrath having joined Rugby this week on dual registration from Stratford Town

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Backed by another large away following, the Pitmen found it tough to make their standard quick start to proceedings as the veteran Rugby defence. Jack Bearne saw plenty of the early ball, making some jinking runs down the right flank to give Edwin Ahenkorah problems with his pace

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The first clear sight at goal came in the seventh minute as the visitors were awarded a free-kick top the left-hand side of the Rugby penalty area after a foul on Manny Duku by McGrath. Dan Trickett-Smith took the resultant kick and curled his effort around the Rugby wall but straight into the arms of veteran stopper Paul Hathaway

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Neat, incisive play through midfield from the Pitmen in the tenth minute saw Simeon Maye and Trickett-Smith combine to set Bearne away down the right, with the winger playing the overlapping Blaine Rowe into space further down the line as they doubled up on Ahenkorah. His cross, however, had a little too much on it and sailed over the heads of Rob Stevenson and Duku at the far post

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Four minutes later, Bearne and Rowe linked up once more in the early autumn sunshine down the right, with Bearne this time taking the ball to the byeline and pulled his cross back towards Stevenson, only for the long-limbed Francis to cut the ball out with a timely interception

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Rugby seemed content to allow Hednesford to have all of the possession in front of them and look to catch them on the counter through the likes of Trey Charles and Tayo Tucker. The hosts forced their first corner of the game out of Elliott Johnson in the sixteenth minute as he had to turn behind a cross from Arthur as he looked to thread a ball through to Charles

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More superb wing play from Bearne on eighteen minutes saw him rescue a deep Trickett-Smith corner out on the right, stealing half a yard of space past two Rugby challenges to allow him to whip the ball into the box where Duku was a whisker away from making contact with his head at the far post

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Duku was proving a menace for the Rugby defence and got goal side of veterans McGrath and Francis once more midway through the first half as he leapt highest to meet a cross from Rowe, but glanced his effort from ten yards out wide of Hathaway's right-hand post

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Hathaway - a Coleshill Town legend with hundreds of non-league games under his belt - made a good save to deny Stevenson a minute later as the big striker's scrambled effort inside the six-yard box was diverted away by the hand of the goalkeeper and eventually cleared

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​The Pitmen were very much on top at this stage of the game, with Duku turning provider with a wonderful piece of skill down the left on twenty-seven minutes, beating two players for pace before standing up a cross into the box that Francis could only divert into the path of the incoming Holness, whose first-time shot was saved by Hathaway

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Despite having very little to do in the first half hour of play, Hednesford goalkeeper Jack Rose was called into action in bizarre circumstances on thirty-two minutes as Rugby broke quickly down the left through the dangerous Charles, whipping in a cross towards Arthur at the far post that was diverted toward his own net by the covering Maye, forcing Rose into an unorthodox save down to his right to turn the ball away from the net and deny Rugby a soft opening goal

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Duku's battle with Hathaway continued a minute later as the Dutchman managed to find a pocket of space to get a low shot away just inside the Rugby penalty area, forcing the 40-year-old into a save down to his right to push the ball away from goal

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The Pitmen's defensive achilles heel of set-pieces was to once again come back to haunt them on thirty-seven minutes as Rugby grabbed the game's opening goal against the run of play; Charles whipped in a corner kick on the right and caught the visitors out with a swirling effort that somehow dropped in the far corner of the net after coming through a forest of legs. A poor, poor goal to concede and one that Rose will not want to see again as he horribly flapped at the ball in the build-up

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Stung by the Rugby goal, the Pitmen looked for an immediate response through Stevenson on forty-one minutes, bringing down a long ball forward from Kory Roberts and controlling the ball well as he turned past McGrath but sliced his curling shot wide of goal from the edge of the penalty area

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Lovely one-touch football involving Maye, Bearne and Trickett-Smith a minute later opened up the Rugby defence, with Trickett-Smith running in behind the back-pedalling home defence but was denied an equaliser by Hathaway, who made himself big and turned the midfield man's shot away from goal

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A superb - and timely - challenge from Summerfield denied Duku a certain goal once more as we moved into added time at the end of the half, somehow blocking the striker's shot on the line and putting the ball behind for a corner kick

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From Trickett-Smith's corner kick, the Pitmen got themselves back on level terms as Duku was on hand to apply the finish from close range, slamming the ball into the roof of the net after the outswinging corner from the right was flicked on by Johnson at the near post and landed at the feet of the Dutchman to plunder goal number five of the season with a simple tap-in at the far post

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It had once again proved to be a frustrating forty-five minutes for King's side, who had completely dominated play but had to rely on Duku's late goal to get them back on level terms. In many senses, the first period was very much a commentary on the Pitmen's season thus far, particularly in league action as they struggled to piece it all together tactically

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Rugby looked to make a quick start to the second half and went agonisingly close to taking the lead once more just eighty seconds after the restart as  Nee was played through down the left by a neat slide-rule pass from O'Toole, only for his looping shot to beat Rose but come back off the outside of the goalkeeper's near post

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Two minutes later, Trickett-Smith's searching free-kick from forty yards out was played into the far post, where Duku arrived late to powerfully head towards goal, only to be denied once more by some heroic goalkeeping from Hathaway and the intervention of the post as the Rugby goal led a charmed life

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Rose was called upon once more to make another good save for the away side on fifty-two minutes, pushing a shot from Arthur away from goal that his near post denied him and also denied the incoming Charles a chance from the rebound

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Rugby were also handing out some roughhouse tactics on the Pitmen to stop them from building up a head of steam in the early stages of the second half, although referee Mr Kaye had appeared to have left his cards in the dressing room as McGrath, Summerfield and Ahenkorah all somehow managed to avoid being booked for fouls on a player in grey

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Neat play from the Pitmen saw them carve a hole straight through the centre of the Rugby side on the hour mark, with Holness and Maye setting up Trickett-Smith, whose intended pass into the feet of Bearne was cut out at the last moment by Francis

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A moment of brilliance from Stevenson on sixty-seven minutes created the Pitmen's second goal of the afternoon as the burly striker picked up the ball inside the penalty area before being forced out onto the right wing by some effective jockeying from O'Toole, Despite looking like he had nowhere to go, Stevenson did brilliantly to turn and stand up a cross from the byeline that landed right on the head of the incoming Duku, who got a run on Summerfield and powerfully headed past Hathaway from close-range

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Duku - now on a hat-trick - looked to test Hathaway once more from a free-kick on seventy-two minutes after Bearne had been brought down by Ahenkorah just outside the Rugby penalty area. The striker's effort was at a nice height for Hathaway on this occasion, however, with the goalkeeper making a comfortable save

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Rugby made their first substitution of the game with fifteen minutes remaining as the familiar face of Mikey Taylor was given a run-out by Adams. The former Tamworth, Stourbridge and Stratford Town striker - a thorn in many previous Hednesford defences - came on up front in place of Tucker

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Rugby dragged themselves back into contention on seventy-six minutes as Charles struck his second goal of the afternoon in an impressive manner; it was another corner kick that was to undo the Pitmen once more as they failed to deal with O'Toole's ball in from the left, allowing top scorer Charles to pounce on the loose ball and crack a confident volley beyond the reach of Rose from twelve  yards out to level once more

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Before the game restarted, Adams made a further double change as he looked to turn the game on its head with Fitzharris coming on in place of Ryan Sahota and Justin Mensah replacing O'Toole

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It was turning into one of those frustrating afternoons in front of goal for Stevenson, who was denied by more brilliance from Hathaway on eighty minutes after Duku's clever 'round the corner' pass sent his strike partner clear of the Rugby defence. However, Stevenson's low strike at goal was turned away by the Rugby stopper, diving full-length to his right to tip the ball away and deny Stevenson an almost certain goal

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Hednesford made a double change of their own with eight minutes of the game remaining as Spence replaced Holness in central midfield and the athletic figure of Jervis replaced the out-of-luck Stevenson

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Mikey Taylor rolled back the years for a brief moment on eighty-three minutes as he made a storming run straight through the Hednesford defence, holding off Roberts' challenge but wanting a little too much time on the ball to shoot and saw his pocket picked by Maye before he could get his effort away

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Hathaway was again the man to deny the desperate Hednesford attack with three minutes remaining, making yet another fine save at his near post to deny Bearne on this occasion after the winger had been played through on goal by Trickett-Smith. The rebound looked to be running kindly for Trickett-Smith, only to be denied a tap-in by ​McGrath's no-nonsense clearing challenge

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Two winless games this week and a replay they could have done without will no doubt irk King and his coaching team as they still look to unlock the vast potential of their misfiring squad. They will reconvene at Keys Park on Tuesday night looking to finish the job on their own pitch, by which time the two sides will know their potential opponents with the draw due to take place on Monday afternoon

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Rugby Town: Hathaway, Summerfield, Ahenkorah, Francis ©, McGrath, Sahota (Fitzharris 77), Nee (Semahimbo 82), O'Toole (Mensah 77), Charles, Tucker (M. Taylor 75), Arthur (Kolodynski 82)      Subs Unused: Rai, Osiomoejiokhian

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Hednesford Town: Rose, Rowe, J. Taylor, Holness (Spence 82), Johnson ©, Roberts, Maye, Trickett-Smith, Stevenson (Jervis 82), Duku, Bearne    Sub Unused: Alamu-Tajudeen, Sutherland, Brown, Gwilt, Endall

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