Lack of Discipline Costs Pitmen Dear Yet Again

Hednesford Town suffered their fourth straight defeat at the hands of fellow play off hopefuls Ilkeston Town at Keys Park on Tuesday night. Once again a lack of discipline far from helped their cause and also a worrying loss of form in an attacking capacity added to a disappointing performance.

The home side started the most positively and after only two minutes an Elliott Durrell corner found Ross Draper in space but the midfielder could only crack the cross bar with a strong header.

Decio Gomes was in the starting line up after a surprise return from Portugal, Tyrone Barnett returned to partner Ross Dyer from the start for the first time since Boxing Day and reliable stopper Stuart Brock made a timely return from injury. With a strong starting line up ‘The Pitmen' showed encouraging signs in the opening twenty minutes and looked the most comfortable team.

However, on twenty-two minutes Ilkeston sprung to life with a neat one-two involving Marc Newsham and Ben Pringle on the edge of the area. Pringle got his shot away and forced Brock to make a superb save to keep the score level. 

Dyer and Barnett combined well on twenty-four minutes with the former racing through the away sides' back line only to be thwarted by Aaron Jameson in the Ilkeston goal. The away side counter attacked quickly and a hideous bobble very nearly caused huge embarrassment for Brock as the ball bounced over his foot and went narrowly wide from a Decio Gomes back pass.

After a rather quiet period in the game tempers flared when out of nothing Alex Cowley dived in with two feet on Steven Istead and caught him badly on the thigh. The tackle was a disgraceful act and the referee had no other decision other than to show a straight red card. For the second time in four days ‘The Pitmen' were left with ten men with only forty minutes on the clock and had given themselves a very hard mountain to climb.

Tom Cahill tried his best to level the numbers up with a high tackle on Durrell in first half stoppage time but the referee saw the offence as only warranting a yellow card and a stern ticking off.

The mountain Hednesford had to climb grew considerably in height when on fifty minutes Decio Gomes took too much time in playing the ball from the back and allowed Cahill to charge his attempted pass down. The Ilkeston striker advanced unchallenged on Brock, took the ball round the keeper and finished well to open the scoring from a tight angle.

‘The Pitmen' really struggled to keep the ball for any amount of time playing with a man down and Ilkeston expertly exploited space on the Keys Park pitch. Sam Duncum and man of the match Ben Pringle kept the ball very well during the second half; limiting the home side to barely a meaningful shot on target. A weak Draper flick after seventy minutes and a cross-cum-shot from Marshall in the dying minutes hardly threatened their one goal advantage.

As the final whistle blew the Ilkeston away support erupted into joyous song, but as Dean Edwards' men trudged off the pitch they will be fully aware that one or two more nights like this one will see the early season title favourites slipping out of play-off contention.

Hednesford look to put their recent roubles behind them with yet another tricky away fixture at Bradford Park Avenue on Saturday, Ilkeston's victory has left ‘The Pitmen' six points inside the play off places with games to follow in the coming weeks against the majority of their fellow promotion hopefuls

Hednesford Town

Brock, Platt, Cowley (Sent Off 39), Gomes, Harvey, Marshall, Hall (Briggs 57), Durrell (Darby 81), Barnett (Lewis 72), Dyer, Draper

Subs Not Used - Gill, Maguire,

Ilkeston Town

Jameson, Thompson, Hurst, Church, Weaver, Murphy, Istead (Harrison 39), Pringle, Cahill (Douglas 72), Newsham (Morgan-Smith 75), Duncum

Subs Not Used - Wild, Yates,

Referee - Mr M. J. Amphlett (Kidderminster)

Attendance - 351

Chris Brewerton