The Pitmen draw a blank for the second home game in a row this evening as they earn themselves a point against an aggressive Stourbridge side in what was a poor advert for the Southern Premier League Central

​

Saturday's hard-earned draw at Mickleover had got the Pitmen on the board for the season as they fought back to pick up their first point of the new season at the Don Amott Arena. Manager Keenen Meakin-Richards made one change to his side for tonight's return to the RACE Stadium as Luke Rowe came back into the side in central midfield as he replaced Cameron Ebbutt. This saw a reshuffle of the attacking positions, with Riley O'Sullivan playing down the left wing and Kyle Bennett down the right flank

​

Stourbridge had also started the season slowly, drawing 1-1 at home to Tamworth on Saturday after being soundly beaten at local rivals Alvechurch on the opening day of the season. Joint managers Leon Broadhurst and Stuart Pierpoint elected to stick with the same XI that had started against the Lambs as they looked for that elusive first win of the new campaign

​

Former Rushall Olympic man Rackeem Reid saw plenty of the ball in the opening twenty minutes of the game as he gave right back Lewis Hayden a torrid time down the left flank for the Glassboys. In the first minute, the winger made a mazy run towards the penalty area before being brought down by Hayden's mistimed challenge. Darryl Knights took the resultant free-kick but recent signing Nathan Cameron headed clear of danger as Jason Cowley lurked at the far post

​

Good play from Knights once more in the fifth minute saw him send Reid away once more down the left flank with a precise pass into the feet of the lanky winger; his angled ball into the box found Alex Moore, who took a little too long to decide what to do with the ball on the edge of the penalty area and was dispossessed by Lewis Ison before he could get his shot away

​

Hayden was once again given the runaround by Reid in the eighth minute as Jack Wilson's pass down the line was taken on by the winger, who was sent sprawling once more from another poor tackle by Hayden, somehow escaping with only a warning from referee Mr Cooke. Knights took responsibility for the free-kick once more and floated in a deep ball to the far post that was headed away by Harvey Portman, under pressure from former Hednesford man Reece King

​

Reid was stopped by a different man in white in the twelfth minute as he drifted inside from the left wing towards the penalty area before being barged off the ball by a clumsy challenge from O'Sullivan. Joe Hull took the kick quickly to play Reid into the penalty area, only for his pull back from the byeline to be put behind by Ison for a Stourbridge corner kick

​

Stourbridge's tactic of Reid running at Hayden continued to bear fruit as the right-back was turned inside out by the winger in the fifteenth minute, resulting in a foul on Reid by Hayden for the third time inside the first fifteen minutes. Despite this, Hayden once again escaped a yellow card as he picked up a final warning from Mr Cooke for persistent fouling. Wilson took the free-kick and once again found the head of home debutant Cameron, who powerfully headed clear to deny Cowley a chance at goal inside the six-yard box

​

Two minutes later, good play from Cowley saw the striker hold the ball up well against Ison before slipping the ball into the path of midfield man Moore; his attempted pass into the feet of Reid was inches away from finding the winger in behind the Hednesford goal, only for a timely intervention from Cameron to take the ball away from the winger

​

Hayden's fully-deserved caution finally came in the nineteenth minute as he pushed his luck a little too far with another foul on Reid down the left flank, prompting Mr Cooke to show him a yellow card

​

The Pitmen had offered nothing as an attacking force in the opening quarter of the game, playing like the away side as they soaked up constant Stourbridge pressure and looked to punt the ball long towards Leroy Lita, O'Sullivan and Bennett to no effect. A good move down the right on twenty-one minutes saw Todd Parker supply the ball to Bennett, standing on the corner of the Stourbridge penalty area, with his cross towards Lita headed away by the experienced Joel Kettle at the far post

​

Some unorthodox defending from goalkeeper Lewis Gwilliams saw him deny Cowley on twenty-five minutes as Vaughan's long, raking pass from the right caught the Hednesford back line out, relying on Gwilliams to race out of his goal to head the ball away from danger as Cowley looked to take the ball around him just outside the penalty area

​

Two minutes later, Lita had the ball in the net for the Pitmen as a neat pass from Bennett played the veteran through on goal, only for a late offside flag from the assistant on the Wimblebury side to deny Lita a goal as he lobbed the ball past goalkeeper Charlie Price and into the unguarded net from eighteen yards out

​

On the half-hour mark, neat approach play from Wilson and Reid down the left saw the winger cross for Cowley, who could not quite connect with the ball as he tried an acrobatic effort at goal from twelve yards out, fouling Portman in the process and gifting the Pitmen a free-kick

​

Vaughan followed fellow right-back Hayden into the referee's notebook on thirty-five minutes as he completely pole-axed Sam Wilding in full flight with a late and clumsy challenge that had the Hednesford bench calling for a straight red card. Mr Cooke lectured the veteran defender about the challenge before showing him a yellow card

​

The sprightly Lita - feeding off scraps as he continued to plough a lone furrow up front - made a good run into the Stourbridge penalty area to get onto Parker's through ball on thirty-eight minutes but was denied a shot at goal by some resolute defending by Kettle

​

Sixty seconds later, many in the ground felt that Vaughan should have been shown a second yellow card in quick succession as he dragged O'Sullivan to the ground to stop the striker from making progress down the left but somehow escaped with a final warning from Mr Cooke, who was proving to be a little too lenient for both sets of supporters with his decision-making

​

A corner kick from Parker caused all sorts of issues in the penalty area for Stourbridge just a minute later as the ball bounced up in front of Price, who had to make a save from Lita at the near post before Wilson hacked the rebounded ball off the line before Ison could turn the ball home

​

It had been a low-quality and unimaginative half from both sides, with Stourbridge having more of the ball but doing very little with it in the final third, despite Reid's best efforts to make progress down the left. Half-time saw both sides take off their yellow-carded right-backs, as the struggling Hayden was replaced by Josh Webb and Vaughan was taken off in favour of Chris Knight

​

The first action of the half saw Mr Cooke reaching for his book once more as Reid followed Vaughan and Hayden in being booked just sixty seconds after the restart for leaving his boot in on Gwilliams as the goalkeeper looked to clear his lines

​

Lita felt that he should have been awarded a penalty kick a minute later as neat build-up play from the hosts saw them play the ball into the feet of the striker, who turned past Kettle before going down under a challenge from the experienced defender. Mr Cooke ignored Lita's pleas as he waved the striker back to his feet and continued with play

​

The Pitmen's early pressing game saw them pick up more of the ball and forced Stourbridge into hurried clearances, with Parker picking one such ball up in midfield on fifty-two minutes and taking it towards the Glassboys' penalty area, only to be crowded out by Callum Gittings and seeing his low shot blocked by the midfielder

​

Gwilliams was alert to the danger once more on fifty-five minutes as he came out of his six-yard box to claim the ball ahead of Gittings after neat interplay from Moore and Knights had played him through on goal

​

Lita had the ball in the net once more a minute later as he fired home from the edge of the penalty area following a pass from Parker but was once again denied by an earlier offside flag against him on the main stand side

​

One former Hednesford man replaced another on fifty-eight minutes as the Glassboys brought on striker Reece Styche in place of the anonymous King to add more firepower to their shot-shy attack

​

The prolific Cowley had found himself up against a solid and developing partnership between Ison and Cameron, struggling to create openings so far this evening. His effort at goal from twenty-five yards out on the hour mark lacked pace, however, and was easily fielded by Gwilliams on his six-yard line

​

Reid unwittingly blocked an effort from his own team-mate two minutes later as a free-kick from Knights was partially cleared by the Pitmen to the boot of Styche, whose rising shot from fifteen yards out hit the body of Reid in front of him and diverted the ball away from goal

​

Moore was guilty of wasting a good chance for the visitors on sixty-three minutes as a good run from Styche saw the experienced striker skip past Portman and stood up a cross to the far post, where former Rushall man Moore headed wide of goal from eight yards out

​

Ison was within a matter of inches from heading home a Bennett free-kick on sixty-seven minutes as he just failed to get his head to a drifting free-kick from the former Doncaster Rovers man at the far post, under pressure from Kettle

​

Bennett incurred the wrath of the Heath Hayes terrace on seventy minutes as he overhit a free-kick out on the right high over the heads of everyone in the penalty area, with the ball drifting out on the far side of the pitch for a throw-in to Stourbridge. A total waste of a good chance in a promising position for the hosts

​

Bennett continued to persevere with the free-kick taking and floated another ball into the box on seventy-one minutes that Cameron just failed to reach inside the six-yard box

​

Kettle did well to deny Lita on seventy-seven minutes as he headed away from goal to clear Stourbridge's lines after yet another Bennett free-kick was played deep into the Glassboys' six-yard box

​

A minute later, Moore was the Stourbridge final player to be shown a yellow card as he was rightly booked by Mr Cooke as he hacked down the impressive Webb to stop him from breaking down the right flank for the Pitmen

​

With nine minutes remaining, a pin-point ball into the box from Bennett out on the right looked for Lita, who nipped in ahead of O'Sullivan but headed wide of the far post from close-range. On closer inspection, it would perhaps have been a better chance for O'Sullivan had Lita left it to the incoming number eleven, who had a good run at the ball to head goalwards

​

You felt that at least one of Bennett's numerous free-kicks into the box were going to pay off eventually for the Pitmen, with a clipped ball into the area on eighty-three minutes eventually cleared by Gittings as O'Sullivan lurked with intent at the far post

​

Wilding had his name taken by Mr Cooke with just four minutes remaining as the former Sunderland midfielder was penalised for bringing Styche down just outside the Hednesford penalty area. Whilst it was clearly a foul, not many of the Hednesford players were impressed with Styche's rolling around and told the former Pitman what they thought of his actions

​

The resultant Cowley free-kick was low and well-struck, taking a nick off the right-hand side of the wall and flying just wide of Gwilliams' right-hand post for a corner kick

​

A minute later, Knights' corner kick was played into the path of Styche, whose attempted overhead kick was comically missed by the 32-year-old, much to the amusement of most of the crowd who gave their former striker a ribbing for his air shot

​

In the first minute of added time, the Pitmen made their second change of the evening as Ebbutt made a late cameo appearance as he came on in place of Bennett on the right

​

It had been a dreadfully dull and uninspiring display from both sides and not a ninety minutes that will live long in the memory. A point apiece leaves the Pitmen down in seventeenth place in the table and Stour two places lower in nineteenth. The Pitmen make the trip to twentieth-placed Stratford Town on Saturday hoping it will be fourth time lucky with that all-important first win of the season to propel them up the league after what has been a mediocre start to the 2022-2023 campaign

​

Hednesford Town: Gwilliams, Hayden ▆ (Webb 45), Portman, Cameron, Ison ©, Wilding ▆, Rowe, Parker, Lita, Bennett (Ebbutt 90), O'Sullivan      Subs Unused: Rashad, Manton, Williams

 

Stourbridge: Price, Vaughan © ▆ (Knight 45), Wilson, Gittings, Kettle, Hull, King (Styche 58), Moore ▆, Cowley, Knights, Reid ▆       Subs Unused: Worley, Moran, Koita

​