The Pitmen's head-stretching erratic recent form continued this afternoon after a first-half horror show from the visitors handed high-flying Vauxhall Motors the points at a wet and wild Rivarce Park

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After last week's dominant 3-1 win at Atherton Collieries, manager Gavin Hurren was again handed significant funds to strengthen his squad with the midweek signing of experienced right-back Jamie Morgan from Vanarama National League North side Radcliffe. Morgan came straight into the side as one of three changes to the side that had started at Atherton as he replaced Blaine Rowe, Joe Doyle-Charles came in for Jacob Gwilt and Sion Spence was preferred to Joel Taylor

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Motors - enjoying a real resurgence after last season's struggle towards the foot of the table - were sitting third in the table ahead of today's play, although recent form had been similarly topsy-turvy to the Pitmen's with only one win in their last five games. Manager Danny Holmes made two changes of his own for today's return home after four successive away games as he brought in Isaac Godwin and Jake Kirby-Reed ahead of Ben Dufton-Kelly and Paddy Kay. There was one very familiar face in the Motors XI in the form of former Hednesford loanee Nick Rushton, who had a spell with the club on loan from Wrexham back in 2014-2015

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It was a typically cold, miserable and dingy mid-December afternoon, with frequent outbursts of squally rain adding to the heavy, swirling wind off the Mersey. With the inside track on the weather, Motors elected to kick with the wind at their backs in the first period and were to use it to good effect to punish the Pitmen throughout the first forty-five minutes

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The visitors looked to make a strong start through the in-form Jake Jervis on four minutes, darting onto an angled through ball from Elliott Johnson but being pulled up by the assistant on the far side for a marginal offside call against him

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Jack Bearne looked to get involved for the Pitmen two minutes later, making a streaking run down the left as he brought the ball inside of Vita Mbolokele but was denied a clear shot at goal by a timely block from the full-back on the edge of the penalty area

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Motors took full advantage of the Pitmen's oh-so-familiar defensive lapses from set-pieces to open the scoring with their very first effort at goal in the eighth minute; Johnson had conceded a free-kick out on the right after bringing down Josh Quarless, allowing Godwin to whip in a deep free kick to the far post where recent signing Adam Rooney was given all the time in the world to head past Ryan Brown completely unmarked. Terrible, terrible defending from the Pitmen so early on in the game

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The away side looked to get themselves going after the shock of conceding so early on, but seemed to be really struggling with the conditions in the opening exchanges. Brown was twice guilty of punting the ball straight into touch within sixty seconds of each other as the wind took the ball out of play and over the heads of the outfield players

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Dan Trickett-Smith - playing in an unfamiliar right-wing role today as the Pitmen accommodated three central midfielders - played a neat one-two with Morgan on fourteen minutes as he got the better of Godwin down the right, but his cross was also caught in the wind and arced away from Jervis before being hacked clear by Rooney

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The hosts were content to punt the ball into the head wind at every opportunity, aiming for the lanky figure of Quarless and Connor Rankin running off him. A long, searching ball from Adam Hughes on fifteen minutes was flicked on by Quarless and into the path of the lively Jawad Jerbin, whose effort was deflected behind by Ollie Harrison for a Vauxhall Motors corner kick

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A rare foray into the Motors third of the pitch from the Pitmen saw Spence earn his side a free-kick thirty yards from goal two minutes later as he was brought down by Dom Hoppe. Trickett-Smith took the free-kick after consultation with Johnson but struck his weakly-hit effort straight into the Motors wall

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A rare mistake from Johnson midway through the half saw him give the ball away cheaply to Mbolokele as he played a short pass towards Bearne. The right-back took the ball into acres of space down the flank goal but no one in a white shirt had made it into the box in time to finish and the ball dribbled out on the far side of the pitch

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Three minutes later, Johnson assumed responsibility for a free-kick to the left of the Motors penalty area after Bearne's run had been checked by Hughes. The skipper's ball in was perhaps over-compensated for the wind a touch as it sailed straight into the gloves of goalkeeper Jack Atkinson, much to the frustration of the large travelling support

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Some excellent one-touch play from the Pitmen on the half-hour mark saw Bearne, Holness and Jervis all involved with a neat passing move that opened up the Motors defence and played Trickett-Smith in, only for the playmaker to be flagged offside by the assistant once more

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Quarless and Mbolokele linked up again down the right three minutes later, with Quarless getting the better of Josh Endall before playing the full-back in behind him with a reverse ball. Mbolokete's chipped cross to the near post forced Brown into a save, tipping the ball over the crossbar for a corner kick as Rushton looked to pick up the pieces

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Bearne as having his own personal battle with Mbolokele down the flank, drawing another foul out of the defender on thirty-six minutes that saw referee Mr Schofield finally have a quiet word with the Motors man. However, the Pitmen were once again wasteful in their execution, with Trickett-Smith's weak ball in headed away easily by Rooney

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Quarless went close to doubling Motors' lead on forty minutes as he met an outswinging free-kick from Godwin at the near post but glanced his effort over the crossbar from eight yards out

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More absolutely pathetic defending from the Pitmen was to prove their downfall once more with ninety seconds of the half remaining as Motors were gifted a second goal of the afternoon; Mbolokele's initial low cross was cut out and cleared by Holness, whose intended ball to Jervis was given up by the striker as he allowed Ronney to easily win it back for the hosts. Rushton picked up the ball on the right and sent over a low cross to the near post, where Endall and Brown got themselves into an almightly mess as the pair allowed the ball to slip between the pair of them and into the path of Rankin, who had the simple task of turning the ball into the empty net from a matter of inches

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There was suddenly some effort and passion in the away side after going two goals down, as they finished the half strongly with a clutch of good chances. Holness played Trickett-Smith into space on forty-five minutes with a chipped ball out to the right, with the midfielder pulling the ball back into the six-yard box where Spence somehow failed to turn the ball home with a miscued effort at the near post. Jervis managed to recycle the ball on the right and find Holness once more, whose cross from the opposite side was sidefooted towards goal by Bearne, forcing Atkinson into a fantastic flying save to his left to push the ball away and deny the Pitmen a certain goal

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Atkinson made a superb save to deny Jervis deep into added time, deflecting the striker's low shot away with his left leg after a thrown-in from Morgan on the right had bounced into the path of the striker just inside the Motors box

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There was no way the dress it up - it had been a dreadful showing from the Pitmen in the first half, arguably the worst half of the whole season to date. They had failed to compete with both the opposition and the conditions, making lazy, errant and stray passes throughout the half and committing two awful defensive errors to hand the hosts a comfortable lead at the break. With that in mind, Hurren elected to make a half-time change as Dom McHale was brought on in place of Holness, allowing Trickett-Smith to return to his normal central role in the process as McHale lined up on the right flank

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Just as he had done in last week's game. Magic Man McHale was to have an immediate impact as he dragged the Pitmen back into the game almost immediately; a quick counter from the Pitmen saw Trickett-Smith play the ball out to McHale on the right, with the midfielder coming inside onto his left foot and leaving two Motors players in his wake before firing a low shot beyond the reach of Atkinson and into the net via a touch off the post from eighteen yards out. Rankin picked up the game's first yellow card from Mr Schofield before the game could restart, presumably for something that had been said in the interim

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Things were starting to warm up nicely, with a bout of pushing and shoving just inside the Hednesford half leading to a yellow card apiece for Jebrin and Harrison on fifty-three minutes after a foul by the Motors midfielder on Trickett-Smith prompted an angry response from the away side

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With the wind at their backs the Pitmen were now looking to take advantage of the conditions going forward, with McHale doing well on the right on fifty-six minutes as he danced past two players and played a brilliant reverse pass into the feet of Jervis, who was disposed by some last-ditch defending from Hughes just inside the Motors box

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On the hour mark, Motors made their first substitution of the afternoon as Nathan Corness - who had joined the club yesterday from league leaders Widnes - came on in place of Godwin

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It could so easily have been a short-lived debut for Corness two minutes later as the former Runcorn Linnets forward clattered into Endall midway inside the Hednesford half with a late and, what appeared to be, a high challenge. Despite calls for a red card for Corness from the men in grey, Mr Schofield elected to only show him a yellow card for the challenge when you have seen a red given for them in the past

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Endall appeared to be suffering the after-effects of the challenge on him and was withdrawn as part of a double change on sixty-six minutes as he was replaced by Zidan Sutherland and Taylor came on for Spence; this saw a shift in formation, with Johnson moving to centre-back and Sutherland playing up front with Jervis

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Sutherland looked to get involved straightaway as he latched onto a long ball forward from Harrison on sixty-nine minutes but was flagged offside as he got in behind Rooney to the left of the Vauxhall Motors penalty area

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Motors moved to add some guile to their ranks on seventy-two minutes as old stager Kevin Ellison was brought on to add his vast experience to the ranks as he replaced Kirby-Reed up front

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Joe Doyle-Charles - not known for his goalscoring prowess in his long career - went agonisingly close to equalising for the Pitmen on seventy-four minutes, picking up a loose ball in midfield before taking it into space and rifling in a low shot from twenty-five yards out that just skipped wide of Atkinson's left-hand post

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The booked Jebrin was removed from the field of play by the hosts a minute later, as the former City of Liverpool midfielder was replaced by ex-Litherland REMYCA midfielder Will Dunne

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A remarkable moment of improvisation from Quarless almost led to a bizarre third goal for Motors on seventy-seven minutes; Johnson's attempted clearance from a Corness cross hit Quarless on the ankle, giving him enough time and control of the ball to lift it back over the head of Brown and loop towards goal, only for the crossbar to intervene as it came back off the woodwork and into play once more

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At the other end, Atkinson kept his side in the lead with a brilliant save on eighty minutes as he somehow denied Sutherland a goal; McHale was the architect once more as he picked Rushton's pocket out on the right flank, taking the ball to the byeline before crossing low into the box to the near post where Sutherland's toe-poke at goal was somehow turned away by Atkinson, making a superb instinctive save low down to his left to keep the ball out of the net

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That was to be the end of Rushton's afternoon, as the burly forward was sacrificed by Motors for the more defensively-minded Paddy Kay on eighty-one minutes

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A huge goalmouth scramble inside the Motors six-yard box saw several players in grey try and turn Trickett-Smith's corner kick home from close range, with Motors somehow managing to hold firm on the goal line before Atkinson managed to smother the ball ahead of Johnson and McHale

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Sutherland was left exasperated once more on eighty-seven minutes as he made another run in behind the Vauxhall Motors defence to reach Johnson's long ball, taking it past the dive of Atkinson and putting it into the net but being pulled back by an earlier offside flag against him from the assistant on the main stand side

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Hurren appeared to be upset at this decision and let the match officials know what he thought, leading to an exchange with Mr Schofield in the final minute of the game and a red card for the Hednesford manager for his comments

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Motors impressively saw out the five minutes of added time, limiting the Pitmen to no further chances in the five added minutes by keeping the ball brilliantly in the corners and earning themselves multiple throw-ins. Excellent game management from the hosts and another glaring difference in attitude between the two sides, with the Pitmen seemingly unable to muster any sort of response as they meekly allowed the clock to tick by

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Not the sort of result - or performance - you would want to be entering a tough-looking festive period off the back of, with Hurren having just five days to figure out his next move before his side entertain their deadly old rivals Stafford Rangers on Boxing Day. You just can't even begin to guess which version with turn up from week to week, such is the wild variation in current performances and attitudes. Must do better, Hednesford

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Vauxhall Motors: Atkinson, Mbolokele, Godwin (Corness 60 ▆), Rooney, Hughes, Hoppe, Jebrin ▆ (Dunne 76), Kirby-Reed (Ellison 72), Rankin ©, Rushton (Kay 81), Quarless    Subs Unused: M. Harrison

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Hednesford Town: Brown, Morgan, Johnson ©, Doyle-Charles, O. Harrison ▆, Endall (Sutherland 67), Trickett-Smith, Holness (McHale 45 ▆), Jervis, Spence (Taylor 68), Bearne       Sub Unused: Gwilt, Sparkes

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