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Kory Roberts

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Clitheroe (H) 26.11.24

The Pitmen get themselves back to winning ways this afternoon amidst horrendous conditions at high-flying Trafford, giving new manager Gavin Hurren a winning start as Hednesford manager

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Having been unveiled as the Pitmen's new manager in midweek, former Stratford Town manager Hurren had witnessed Tuesday night's horrendous display at Stalybridge Celtic and made three changes to the side for his first team selection today; the suspended Blaine Rowe was replaced by Sion Spence, whilst Manny Duku and Joel Taylor were both ruled out with a virus and replaced by Jake Jervis and Dom McHale. Rob Stevenson and Josh Endall sat out today's game as the pair were both suffering from concussion

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Fourth-placed Trafford were playing their second home game in a week, losing 1-0 against local rivals Atherton Collieries in midweek. Manager Karl Marginson made three changes of his own for today's game as Matty Morgan, Sean Higgins and Sam Gill came in for Hilal Khan, Isaac Noble and Jerome Wright

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Storm Bert had enveloped the UK in the past twenty-four hours to add to the snow that had been left on the ground earlier in the week. Despite several games in the area being postponed earlier in the day, Trafford's Shawe View pitch was passed as playable despite it being heavy underfoot. The men in grey looked to make their standard quick start to the game with a good chance for McHale in the fourth minute, dancing past two challenges from the right before seeing his low shot turned behind by Jack Higgingbottom for a corner kick

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Trafford's early play seemed to involve playing several crossfield balls between their wide players, something that you would have thought would have been ill-advised in the horrible, rainy conditions. On more than one occasion in the opening exchanges, balls sailed out of play from the hosts as they struggled to get to grips with the heavy underfoot conditions

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McHale picked the pocket of Damola Sotona in the eighth minute and linked up well with Kory Roberts down the right wing, teasing his way into the box but seeing his intended pass through to Jervis cut out by Trafford skipper Harry Norris

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Bearne picked up an early caution in the ninth minute for a foul on Higgins as he looked to track back into his own half and cover the full-back out on the flank with a mis-timed challenge that handed the hosts a free-kick

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More good play from the visitors two minutes later saw Roberts involved once more with another good tackle and pass out of defence and into the feet of Dan Trickett-Smith, who was allowed time and space to make ground inside the Trafford half before playing Jack Bearne into space down the left. However, a tight offside flag was to pull the winger back just as he looked to pick Jervis out in the centre​

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Jervis - without a goal for the club since scoring in the win over Quorn back in September - finally ended his dry spell in front of goal with a smart finish in the fifteenth minute, getting goal side of Jordan Fagbola as he got on the end of Bearne's low driven cross from the left at the near post and turned it past goalkeeper Sam Booth from close-range, despite the stopper's best efforts to keep the ball out

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The Pitmen continued to press as the rain continued to fall incessantly on the Shawe View turf, with Bearne and McHale a constant menace for the full-backs as they looked to prise out another opening. Roberts and McHale linked up again down the right on eighteen minutes, with McHale stepping past three challenges with some sumptuous footwork before finally being stopped in his tracks just inside the Trafford penalty area by Higgingbottom

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Midway through the half, a long kick forward from Jack Rose was flicked on by Jervis into the path of Trickett-Smith, only for the ball to bounce off the greasy turf and skip away from the in-form playmaker as he looked to get himself in on goal behind Fagbola

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More good play down the right on twenty-seven minutes saw Roberts' throw find McHale, who linked up well with Spence to play the ball into the path of Trickett-Smith on the edge of the penalty area. His first-time shot lacked power, however, and was an easy claim for Booth at his near post

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A Trickett-Smith corner on twenty-nine minutes was only cleared as far as Bearne, who manoeuvred the ball onto his right foot before firing just over the crossbar from fifteen yards out with several Trafford players looking to close him down

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Having offered the square route of nothing so far as an attacking force, Trafford started to come into the game and had a great chance to level matters on thirty-two minutes through Matty Morgan, latching onto a quick one-touch move involving Rio Clegg and Gill before pulling his low shot across the face of Roses's goal and just wide of the far post from fifteen yards out

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Clegg went even closer to forcing an equaliser for Trafford two minutes later as Matty Lusakueno did brilliantly down the left flank, beating Roberts

for pace before pulling the ball back to the incoming Clegg, whose first-time shot beat Rose but canned back off the crossbar

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Trafford were certainly knocking on the door at this point and forced a corner out of Dan Sparkes on thirty-five minutes, with Higgingbottom's ball in causing the Pitmen all kinds of issues in their own six-yard box before Elliott Johnson finally managed to clear the danger

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Booth denied Jervis a second goal of the afternoon with five minutes of the first half remaining as the powerful forward made a run in on goal to latch onto an Omar Holness pass but was to be denied by a fine reflex save from the stopper, pushing the ball away to his right

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Three minutes later, Johnson latched onto a loosely cleared Trafford ball from a Trickett-Smith corner and fired the ball back at goal, but was slightly off-target as his shot skipped past the post
 

Half time will have come as a welcome interval for both players, who had had to endure the squally conditions and a heavy surface. The Pitmen had largely commanded the first-half play, coping far better with the underfoot conditions and limiting Trafford to just the one real chance for Clegg that had hit the crossbar. Hurren will have been pleased with the player's commitment after Tuesday night's defensive horror show, easing a limited Trafford side off the ball in the final third before launching quick counter-attacks for the likes of Bearne and McHale to exploit

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Ollie Harrison - still looking for his first goal since joining the club in October - had the first sight at goal of the second half on forty-six minutes, leaping highest inside the six-yard box to reach Trickett-Smith's cross but got underneath the ball and headed over the crossbar

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Sloppy play from Trafford once more on fifty-two minutes saw McHale pick Roberts' interception and turn Sotona inside out before trying his luck from an audacious angle with a powerfully struck effort that skipped just wide of Booth's far post

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Another flowing move on the counter from the Pitmen on fifty-eight minutes saw McHale, Spence and Jervis all involved before Trickett-Smith drove in a shot from twenty yards out that was deflected behind for a corner kick by Norris

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Trafford's first change of the afternoon came shortly after the hour mark as youngster Khan - a product of the Trafford U21 team last season - came on in place of Gill

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Holness was next to test the reflexes of the Trafford goalkeeper on sixty-two minutes, striking a firm first-time effort at goal from the edge of the penalty area that was deflected into the path of Booth by Norris, forcing the goalkeeper into a good save down to his left

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Clegg picked up Trafford's only booking of the afternoon midway through the second half after his initial shot was blocked by Johnson and then cleared by the Hednesford skipper, who was then on the receiving end of a follow-through from the Trafford striker

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Zidan Sutherland was finally given an extended run on the pitch for the Pitmen on sixty-six minutes as the pacy forward replaced McHale - this saw Bearne shift across to the right flank and Sutherland line up on the left

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Bearne somehow failed to add to his season's tally with a glorious chance to add to the Pitmen's tally on sixty-nine minutes, looking to get on the end of McHale's wonderful run and cross to the far post but just failing to turn the ball into the empty net as the pace of the ball eluded him

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There was a double attacking change made by Trafford with twenty minutes of the game to go as Marginson threw on Cian Donohue in place of Lusakeuno and Ryley Smith replaced Brad Byrne

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At the other end, shot-shy Trafford were reliant on set pieces to get them up the pitch, with Morgan sending over a fine cross on the right on seventy-one minutes that was glanced just wide of goal by Clegg from eight yards out

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The hosts got themselves back into the game on seventy-three minutes courtesy of a wonderful strike from Morgan; picking the ball up on the right-hand side of the box, the long-serving winger brilliantly took the ball past Sparkes before unleashing a superb dipping shot that beat Rose all ends up and found the far top corner of the net. A great strike

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Roberts had been the Pitmen's outstanding performer in the game so far but nearly blotted his copybook on seventy-five minutes as he was caught in possession just outside his own penalty area by Smith, who took the ball into the box and pulled it back into the path of fellow substitute Khan, whose shot from fifteen yards out was wide of the target

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The Pitmen looked to make a positional shift once more on seventy-nine minutes as Jacob Gwilt replaced Sparkes, forcing Johnson out to left-back, Roberts moving to centre-back and Holness slotting in at right-back​

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Jervis picked up the Pitmen's second booking of the afternoon a minute later, as Mr Watson showed him a yellow card for what appeared to be dissent after a free-kick went against the Pitmen out on the Trafford right

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The Pitmen got their noses in front once more on eighty-one minutes as Trickett-Smith continued his recent purple patch in front of goal, making a late dart into the six-yard box to get on the end of a floated cross from Bearne out on the right and bundling the ball home on the line with a glancing header, sparking wild celebrations behind the goal amongst the large Hednesford travelling contingent
 

Trafford immediately moved to make a change of personnel on eighty-three minutes as the returning Higgins was withdrawn and replaced by Kayne Nisbett down the right

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Some excellent defending from the Pitmen cleared their lines twice in quick succession on eighty-seven minutes as two free-kicks were played into the box and headed clear by Roberts and Harrison with authority

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Trafford's final change of the game came on eighty-eight minutes as Jack Donohue came on in place of Sotona on the left as Marginson rolled the dice one last time in search of a late equaliser

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Rose picked up a late caution from Mr Watson in the final minute of the game for spending a little too long in taking a goal kick for the official's liking, booking the stopper for time-wasting

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With the game drifting into added time, a corner kick from Higgingbottom was headed back at goal by Fagbola at the far post, but Johnson was having none of it and hacked the ball away from Clegg and Khan before either Trafford player could react inside the six-yard box

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Victory lifts the Pitmen into the top ten of the Northern Premier League West, above local rivals Chasetown and within five points of the play-off places with still several games in hand on every side above them. They now face four successive home games in the next two weeks, giving Hurren a great chance to stamp his authority on this side and get some serious momentum moving forward ahead of another busy set of fixtures in December

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Trafford: Booth, Higgins (Nisbett 83), Sotona (J. Donohue 88), Fagbola, Norris ©, Higgingbottom, Morgan, Byrne (Smith 70), Clegg ▆, Lusakueno (C. Donohue 70), Gill (Khan 61)      Subs Unused: None

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Hednesford Town: Rose ▆, Roberts, Sparkes (Gwilt 79), Spence, Harrison, Johnson ©, Trickett-Smith, Holness, Jervis ▆, McHale (Sutherland 66), Bearne ▆    Sub Unused: Alamu-Tajudeen, Brown

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