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Ollie Harrison

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Harborough Town (A) 4.10.25

The Pitmen are knocked out of this season’s F.A. Cup at the third hurdle tonight as a goal in each half from Billericay Town sees them ease past the visitors

 

Having failed to force home their Keys Park advantage on Saturday, Hednesford manager Gavin Hurren was forced into making one change to his side for their long trip down to Essex as Ryan Wynter was ruled out due to injury and was replaced by the fit-again Joel Taylor

 

Billericay had been good value for their draw on Saturday and will have been confident of finishing the job on their own pitch this evening. Manager Danny Scopes had been happy with his side's application at the weekend and chose to stick with the same XI that had started at Keys Park

 

Looking to make a quick start in front of their own fans, Billericay pushed forward and won a free-kick in a dangerous position in the fourth minute as Ollie Harrison was adjudged to have brought down Jack Evans to the right-hand side of the Hednesford penalty area. Evans took the kick himself and curled in a right-footed effort that took a nick off the Hednesford wall and went wide for a corner kick

 

Liam Nash’s resultant corner kick was swung into the six-yard box and claimed by Tony Breeden, who clashed with Blues skipper Matt Johnson as he looked to launch a quick counter-attack and ended up with both players on the deck

 

The Pitmen’s first foray into the Billericay half came a minute later as Taylor made a strong run down the left, beating Ike Orji for pace and sending over a good cross that Jonny Edwards flicked into the path of Ahkeem Rose; his powerfully-struck shot from the edge of the penalty area appeared to strike the hand of Tommy Davis, but the referee was unconvinced of this claim and play continued

 

More good play from the Pitmen down the left two minutes later saw Dan Turner make progress down the flank, sending over an inviting cross towards Edwards at the far post that Johnson was forced into turning behind for a throw-in to the Pitmen. A quick throw was played to Taylor, whose deep cross to the far post was met by skipper Dom McHale. However, the playmaker saw his miscued shot from an angle turned behind by Jay Porter for a corner kick

 

Taylor was given a stern dressing-down by the referee in the ninth minute after bringing down Orji in full flight to stop the wing-back from breaking into space behind him

 

Harrison was left requiring significant treatment from physio Paul Taylor in the thirteenth minute as he came off worst in an aerial challenge with Porter, leaving him with a gash to his head. After being patched up by Taylor, Harrison returned to the pitch sporting a fetching bandage on his head

 

A quick break from Billericay down the right four minutes later saw the pacy Orji make a strong run past Taylor before playing Nash into space in front of him; the midfielder looked to take the ball into the box before some excellent defending from Chris Hussey saw the veteran come across and clear the danger

 

Jamie Morgan – amazingly still without a goal in his Hednesford career – went close to breaking the deadlock on seventeen minutes as he made an overlapping run beyond Porter to get on the end of McHale’s pass, crossing low toward Edwards in the penalty area. The ball was cleared by Scott back to the right-back, who unleashed an angled shot on the rebound that forced goalkeeper Sam Dokin into a save at his near post to palm the ball away for a corner kick

 

Hussey’s deep corner kick into the box was met by the bandaged head of Harrison, who glanced the ball back into the danger zone and toward Turner, who was denied by a smothering save by Donkin before he could hook the ball home from close range

 

Midway through the first half, Edwards did well to hold off the attentions of Porter around the corner flag, controlling the ball well before laying it off to Morgan – his cross was headed out by Scott as far as Joe Doyle-Charles, whose effort from twenty-five yards out took a nick off a Billericay defender and looped up into the arms of Donkin

 

Edwards – still struggling to impose himself on the team with only one goal from open play so far this season – was guilty of wasting a good opportunity on twenty-three minutes as he bundled his way past Scott and into the penalty area, but took a touch too many and allowed Porter to make a timely interception

 

Scott was involved at the other end three minutes later as he rose highest at the far post to meet a corner kick from Evans, heading into the grateful arms of Breeden from six yards out

 

McHale left the small travelling support frustrated on twenty-eight minutes as he made a typically bustling run inside from the right, taking three players on before running into traffic. Morgan had made a superb overlapping run into space and would have been the far better option to pass to, rather than hold onto the ball for too long

 

Orji made a late run in behind Hussey on the half-hour mark to latch onto Nash’s long pass, only for the assistant on the far side of the pitch to raise his flag for a tight offside call against the player

 

Sixty seconds later, McHale won the Pitmen a free-kick out wide on the right after being brought down by Davis. Hussey’s ball in was met at the far post by Harrison, whose flicked header dropped just wide of Donkin’s right-hand post

 

On-loan Max Jolliffe was gifted a golden opportunity to open the scoring two minutes later, taking advantage of the Pitmen standing off him to get a shot away from sixteen yards out with the outside of his boot, driving in an angled effort that skipped inches wide of Breeden’s far post

 

Billericay finally broke the tie’s deadlock after 124 minutes of goalless play as the hosts finally found a way through the stoic Hednesford defence. Evans was the architect, picking the ball up thirty yards from goal and striking an audacious effort at goal that caught Breeden out, with the stopper managing to get enough on the shot to tip it onto the crossbar. Unfortunately for the veteran goalkeeper, his effort was in vain as the ball came back off the woodwork and dropped kindly into the path of the incoming Frankie Merrifield, who had the simple task of turning the ball into the empty net from close range

 

This seemed to severely blunt the Pitmen’s attacking instincts as they struggled to create anything of note against a well-organised Billericay back line. Simoen Maye and Doyle-Charles picked up several balls in space but had little to nothing to aim at with a distinct lack of movement in front of them

 

On forty-one minutes, good play from Billericay down the left saw Porter and Nash combine to send over a cross towards Evans, only for Breeden to deny the striker with a claim at his near post

 

With three minutes of the first half remaining, another rangy cross from the right from Morgan found Turner on the opposite side of the Billericay penalty area; Turner battled with Orji for the ball but could only foul the wing-back in the process and hand the hosts a free-kick

In the first of three added minutes at the end of the half, Turner made progress down the left and crossed towards Edwards, with Scott doing enough to reach the ball and look to bring it clear. Morgan looked to dispossess the defender but could only haul the centre-back to the floor, picking up the game’s first yellow card in the process for the foul

 

After making a bright start to the game, the visitors’ momentum had dropped later on in the half and had allowed Billericay to come into the game and steal into the lead through Merrifield’s opener. Half-time saw Hurren make two changes to his side as Kieron Freeman and Joss Labadie came on in place of Maye and Taylor; this saw a re-jig in defence with Hussey moving to left-back and Labadie lining up alongside Harrison at centre-back

 

The first action of the second half saw McHale go into the referee’s notebook within moments of the restart, presumably for something the midfielder had said to the referee 

 

Good play from the Pitmen down the left on forty-eight minutes saw Freeman and Turner link up well, with Turner drifting in from the byeline and pulling the ball back low across goal to McHale, whose shot was blocked and cleared

 

Sixty seconds later, McHale was involved again as he took Hussey’s forward pass on and into the Billericay penalty area before taking a tumble under pressure from Johnson. Once again, nothing was doing for the visitors as the referee waved away McHale’s vain protests for a penalty kick

 

Some quick thinking from Breeden on fifty-one minutes saw the stopper punt a long ball forwards to the willing running of Rose, who drove past Scott with a powerful run into the box before drilling in a low shot at goal that Donkin brilliantly turned around his left-hand post for a corner kick after sticking a leg out to divert the shot away from goal

 

Three minutes later, another forceful run from Rose saw him take the ball twenty yards forward and up to the edge of the Billericay penalty area, where he was brought down by Tyrell Rodney-Miller. Despite the free-kick favouring a right-footer, the left-footed Hussey lined up the resultant kick and fired in a fine effort that Donkin was once again equal to, saving low down to his left-hand side

 

Labadie followed Morgan and McHale into the referee’s notebook on fifty-seven minutes as the makeshift defender was booked for bringing down goalscorer Merrifield in midfield

 

On the hour mark, Billericay somehow failed to add to their advantage as a corner from Evans led to an almighty scramble of bodies inside the six-yard box, with Harrison and Freeman both managing to clear the ball off the line before the Pitmen could turn it behind for the relative safety of a Billericay corner kick

 

Both teams elected to make changes on sixty-three minutes - Jolliffe was replaced by Ryan Blackman for the hosts, with the Pitmen making a double change as Jake Jervis replaced Edwards and Dan Trickett-Smith came on for Morgan. This saw a tactical shift that moved Turner to the right flank to accommodate Jervis on the left, with McHale moving inside

 

Orji picked up Billericay’s first and only booking of the evening on sixty-six minutes as he took far too long at a set-piece and was shown a yellow card for time-wasting

 

Rose did well to seize on a loose pass out of defence from Billericay on sixty-nine minutes and play Turner into space down the right – he, in turn, pulled the ball back into the path of McHale, whose low first-time effort from eighteen yards out was saved by Donkin

 

Jervis offered the Pitmen a little more in the way of power and pace up front, with the former Plymouth Argyle man driving in on goal on seventy-three minutes with a forceful run and shot from range that sailed high over Donkin’s crossbar

 

A minute later, play opened up on front of Evans as he took the ball forwards for the home side, with the experienced former Gillingham midfielder letting fly from eighteen yards out with a shot that flew just wide of Breeden’s upright

 

Billericay made a second change of the evening with fourteen minutes of play remaining as the hard-working Nash was replaced by fellow midfielder Elliot Long

 

This was followed just two minutes later with a further change made by Scopes, with the Billericay gaffer bringing off Evans and replacing him with Charlie Panton

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Doyle-Charles tried his luck from long range once more for the Pitmen on seventy-nine minutes, striking a curling effort from twenty yards out that cleared Donkin’s crossbar

 

Billericay went close to closing the game out on eighty-one minutes as Long took advantage of a sloppy pass out from Rose, striking a firm shot at goal from twenty yards out that beat Breeden but came back off the top of the crossbar. The Pitmen broke quickly on the counter after clearing their lines, with Hussey making a superb run down the left and crossing for Trickett-Smith at the back post; the substitute glancing his header at goal and struck what appeared to be a Billericay hand. Despite the men in red’s pleas, the referee waved away their protests once again

 

The Pitmen looked to turn the screw on Billericay in the final minutes of the game as they desperately searched for a leveller to take the game to extra time; a corner kick from Freeman on eighty-five minutes was swung in from the left and headed on by Jervis at the near post to Turner, whose header back across goal was brilliantly turned away by Donkin from close-range. The former Leiston man had certainly more than played his part in earning Billericay their place in the next round over the two games

 

Billericay’s path into the next round was finally sealed on the counter-attack on eighty-seven minutes as the away side were punished for pushing too many men forwards; Johnson led the charge with a run and lay-off to Merrifield, who confidently fired past Breeden and into the roof of the net with his second goal of the evening

 

Blackman went close to putting the cherry on top of the cake on eighty-nine minutes, firing an angled shot from the left-hand corner of the box that forced Breeden into a two-handed save to turn the ball away high to his left-hand side

 

In the second of seven added minutes, the Pitmen went close to a goal twice in quick succession as Harrison’s downward header at goal from a Hussey corner was hacked away by Porter, followed a couple of phases later with a low shot from Rose that Donkin fielded inside his own penalty area

 

So, there’s not to be a repeat of last season’s run to the first round proper for the Pitmen this term as they exit the F.A. Cup at the third hurdle. Credit has to go to Billericay, who were strong and organised throughout the 180 minutes and ran out deserved winners over the course of the tie. Attention now turns to another cup competition at the weekend when they make the trip to Leicestershire to face Southern Premier League Central league leaders Harborough Town for the first time ever in the third qualifying round of the F.A. Trophy

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Billericay Town: Donkin, Porter, M. Johnson ©, Davis, Scott, Nash (Long 76), Merrifield (Cerulli 89), Orji, Evans (Panton 78), Miller-Rodney, Jolliffe (Blackman 63)     Subs unused: Abraham, Oudnie-Morgan, Okewoye

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Hednesford Town: Breeden, Morgan ▆ (Jervis 63),  Taylor (Labadie 45 ▆), Maye (Freeman 45), Hussey, Harrison, Rose, Doyle-Charles, Edwards (Trickett-Smith 63), McHale © ▆, Turner     Sub unused: Brown

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