Hednesford's shockingly poor home form continued this afternoon as they failed to follow up last week's fine win at Bootle with a dreadful performance and deserved defeat against high-flying Clitheroe at Keys Park

​

Last week's much-needed three points had brought Harry Harris's side within three points of the safety zone ahead of today's return home; Harris made three changes to his side as injured duo Lucas Yeomans and Sam Griffiths were replaced by Michael Williams and Ritchie Sutton, whilst Callum Niven was handed his first start for the club up front as he came in ahead of Demetri Brown

​

Previous league leaders Clitheroe had suffered something of a wobble since moving to the top of the table earlier in the month, losing consecutive league games to Hanley Town and Leek Town. The recently-appointed Danny Caldecott made four changes of his own for their longest away trip of the season as new signings Ross Davidson - a former Hednesford midfielder - and Leon Arnasalam joined Jack Sloan and Richard Baker in the side as the quartet replaced the injured Lee Pugh, Mark Howarth, Ross Dent and Veron Parny respectively

​

Some areas of the Keys Park pitch were still heavy and hard underfoot after an overnight frost but was perfectly playable on a bright but chilly afternoon in South Staffordshire. The hosts were caught as cold as the weather, however, as last week's result was quickly confined to the archives as Clitheroe took the lead with the first attack of the game in the fourth minute; the away side worked the ball from right to left as Will Hall sprayed the ball out to Sloan, whose cross was scuffed into the path of Arnasalam by Sutton's miscued clearance. The debutant stood up a cross into the six-yard box where the much-travelled giant Sefton Gonzales got goal side of Endall to nod past Ryan Brown from close-range

​

The away side looked confident, fit and a constant threat on the counter-attack throughout, with Arnasalam winning a corner kick in the fifth minute as he got past Williams momentarily in the penalty area before the veteran defender did well to recover and slide the ball behind

​

Gonzales held off the attention of Sutton in the ninth minute as he looked to turn on the ball on the edge of the penalty area and play Arnaslam in down the left-hand channel, only for Williams to once again snuff out the danger

​

The Pitmen looked to Jai Verma to get them going, with the winger showing some delightful touches throughout his home debut but ultimately lacked the final ball that perhaps the home side were requiring. He jinked his way past right-back Jacob Hanson in the twelfth minute as he drove to the byeline but ran out of pitch as he looked to clip the ball into the path of the incoming Niven

​

Sloan was proving a useful outlet for Clitheroe on the left, getting up and down the pitch at every opportunity as he and Arnasalam doubled up on Williams at every opportunity. On fifteen minutes, he looked to pick Gonzales out with a bobbling, inswinging cross that drifted past the striker and just out of the reach of the incoming Danny Wilkins at the far post

​

A quick break from Clitheroe three minutes saw Arnasalam streak away down the left and send over an early cross for Gonzales, who got in front of Endall once more but saw his flicked header drift just wide of Ryan Brown's left-hand post

​

The Pitmen won their first corner kick of the afternoon on nineteen minutes as a neat move down the Hednesford right saw James McQuilkin feed Joe Morley, who had the ball cleared from underneath his feet by Sloan for a flag kick that Tom Thorley tamely played onto the head of Baker

​

Another flowing move from the men in white saw McQuilkin involved once more on twenty-two minutes, picking the run of Verma out with a finely executed pass to the winger down the left. Verma teased his way past Hanson but lacked the physicality in his game to hold the full-back off as he got the better of the slightly built former Stoke City man

​

Gonzales was playing the perfect target man's game, giving Endall and Sutton nightmares as he led the line for the hosts to bring others into the game. A minute later, he looked to get on the end of a through ball from Wilkins but was adjudged to have been offside by the assistant standing on the main stand side of the pitch

​

Successive corner kicks from Clitheroe ramped up the pressure on the chaotic Hednesford defence, with Ryan Brown doing well to punch the second inswinging cross from Sloan away from the head of Gonzales on twenty-six minutes

​

However, Gonzales got his name on the scoresheet once more three minutes later as Clitheroe doubled their lead from yet another corner kick; Wilkins' inswinging corner kick was too hot for Ryan Brown, who couldn't get anything on it as Barker challenged him, with the ball dropping at the feet of Gonzales at the far post - the veteran striker bundled the ball home ahead of Kelly to make it a deserved 2-0 lead for the Blues

​

More wastefulness from the Pitmen from a corner kick came shortly after the half-hour mark as Thorley nonchalantly rolled the ball short towards McQuilkin, who saw this half-hearted shot blocked and cleared by Hall

​

With ten minutes of the first half remaining, Gonzales went close to striking his hat-trick as he got on the end of a quick counter-attack down the left through Arnasalam, striking a powerful right-footed effort that was pushed away by Ryan Brown down to his left-hand side

​

Gonzales was not to be denied, however, as he did indeed grab his third goal of the afternoon in ridiculously comical fashion from the home side's point of view on thirty-eight minutes; a long, searching ball over the top from Sloan dropped into the path of Gonzales, who once again got goal side of the hapless Endall as he looked to enter the penalty area. Ryan Brown looked to race out of goal and nick the ball off the striker but only succeeded in running straight into his team-mate, wiping Endall out as Gonzales gleefully tapped the ball into the empty net unchallenged. Frankly put, a pathetic goal to concede and indicative of a team low on confidence, morale and lacking in key communication skills

​

Having taken a boot to the chest from Brown in the build-up to the third Clitheroe goal, Endall remained on the deck as the away side celebrated their third strike, with the big defender having to be carried off as he was replaced by Demetri Brown for the final two minutes of the first half. This saw McQuilkin drop to right-back for a spell to cover, with Willaims moving across the defence to partner Sutton at centre-back

​

The Pitmen rallied briefly just before the break and hit the woodwork for the first time in the game on forty-three minutes as Thorley's free-kick into the Clitheroe box was headed onto the base of the right-hand post by Sutton's downward header

​

It had been yet another example of the Pitmen's oh-so-familiar failings in front of their own fans as they had struggled to lay a glove on that latest in a long line of big, strong, organised teams who had simply eased a feeble and uncompetitive Hednesford team out of the game by simply wanting it more. Upon his arrival, Harris had made a point of mentioning a desire to make the team more of an attacking threat and a need to be fitter throughout games. Alas, neither of these points had been in evidence throughout the first half of the game, much in the same way as the recent home game against league leaders Prescot Cables

​

Niven was the first player to receive a booking in the afternoon just a few moments into the second half for a foul on Barker inside the Clitheroe half,  earning himself a yellow card from referee Mr Biggin

​

Two minutes later, a lung-busting run from Wilkins saw him take the ball from the halfway line and deep into the Hednesford penalty area, only for Ryan Brown to make a smart stop to hold the former Droylsden man's low effort

​

Clitheroe continued to look the more threatening as Matty Barlow went close on fifty-three minutes as the Blues worked the ball down the right and into the penalty area, where Barlow made a late run before drilling his shot wide of goal from an angle

​

Clitheroe's first change of the afternoon came a minute later as homegrown defender Cameron Lancaster came on in place of Will Hall as Caldecott elected to give one of his younger players a run-out and also rested a player who had suffered a nasty clash of heads a few minutes earlier

​

Matty Barlow followed Niven in Mr Biggin's notebook on fifty-six minutes as he took his complaints about a free-kick awarded to the Pitmen too far and was booked for dissent

​

Good wing play from Wilkins saw him get the better of Jack Kelly as the pair challenged for the ball on the right-hand byeline on fifty-eight minutes, with Wilkins pulling the ball back to Gonzales, whose shot beat Ryan Brown but was cleared off the line by the alert Williams. The ball ran back to Wilkins, who skied his rebounded shot over the crossbar from ten yards out

​

A minute later, the ineffective Joe Thompson was booked by Mr Biggin for a foul midway inside the Hednesford half as he brought Wilkins down in full flight

​

Shortly before the hour mark, the hosts made their second change of the game as on-loan utility man Jamie Spiers replaced the uncompetitive and hugely disappointing Morley on the right wing

​

More pressure on the Hednesford defence on sixty-two minutes saw a corner kick from Wilkins aimed towards Gonzales once more, with Sutton doing well eventually in clearing the Pitmen's lines

​

Spiers' first contribution to the afternoon was to win the home side a very soft penalty kick on sixty-three minutes. Entering the right-hand corner of the penalty area, the youngster appeared to slip as he was challenged by Sloan, with Mr Biggin perhaps a little unsighted as he awarded the hosts a spot-kick. Thompson stepped up but had to look of someone with little confidence in himself and sure enough, drove his penalty kick onto the crossbar and away from danger as he failed to test Clitheroe stopper Hakan Burton

​

The bookings were starting to total up during the second half, with substitute Lancaster picking up a yellow card midway through the second half for a foul on Thorley

​

On sixty-eight minutes, Clitheroe could afford to take debutant Arnasalam off after an impressive debut from the former Macclesfield man as he was replaced by Kaiden Barlow

​

With twenty minutes to go, the Pitmen's final change of the afternoon saw winger Kaden May brought on to add some impetus to the attack as he replaced McQuilkin

​

May was quickly into the action for his new team, picking the ball up from deep on seventy-three minutes and driving forwards before firing high into the Heath Hayes terrace from twenty-five yards out, sparking ironic cheers from the disgruntled home support

​

Two minutes later, neat play from Clitheroe saw Gonzales neatly play Hanson into space down the right with a backheel that was too much for Kelly to cope with. The full-back picked out Baker with his cross, only for the defender's header to be turned away by the acrobatics of Ryan Brown

​

Thorley picked up the latest booking of the afternoon from Mr Biggin on seventy-eight minutes as he brought Davidson down in frustration to stop the former Hednesford midfielder from breaking into the opposition half

​

Exciting Portuguese midfielder Anisio Jesus was given a late run-out by the visitors with ten minutes remaining, as the former Arsenal youngster came on in place of Matty Barlow

​

Just a few seconds later, Gonzales capped a superb individual display as he grabbed his fourth goal of the afternoon to put an extra layer of gloss on a fine Clitheroe performance. The Blues worked the ball well down the right flank as Hanson and Jesus exchanged passes before Hanson played the substitute into space with a fine threaded pass. The former Rochdale winger stood up a cross that was simply begging to be turned in at the far post, with Gonzales applying the deftest of headers to the ball and turning it into the empty net from a matter of inches out. More non-existent marking, tracking back or basic positional sense from the Pitmen, who were carved open at ease by the visitors. This saw a good portion of the home crowd decide that enough was enough and start making their way to the exits before the full-time whistle

​

Sloan looked to get involved in the goal action for the dominant away side on eighty-four minutes, taking the ball into the penalty area unchallenged before overrunning the ball and allowing skipper for the day Williams to clear

​

Burton made his only save of the afternoon two minutes later as he pushed away a far post header from Sutton after a corner kick on the right had been worked to Verma to cross with his left foot before making a smothering saw from Niven at the second attempt to protect his clean sheet

​

Williams was the late recipient of a booking from Mr Biggin on eighty-nine minutes as the Pitmen's man of the match was rightly yellow carded for a crunching tackle on Wilkins that angered the Clitheroe man and led to a bout of finger-pointing between the players

​

There was still time for the visitors to go close to adding a fifth goal in added time as Wilkins drove past three half-hearted challenges en route to goal and struck a powerful effort that beat Ryan Brown but came back off the base of the goalkeeper's left-hand post

​

It had been another sobering reminder of the Pitmen's long-standing impotence in front of their own fans, adding yet another defeat to their seemingly never-ending run of winless league games on their own ground. The Pitmen have now failed to win any of their last eight games in the league, dating back to April when they beat an under-strength Needham Market 4-0. Despite this setback, defeats for both Trafford and 1874 Northwich keep things as they are at the foot of the table as the Pitmen face the daunting prospect of travelling to county rivals Leek Town next week, with the Blues in ominous form having won six of their last ten games and sit in second place in the league table

 

Hednesford Town: R. Brown, Williams ▆, Kelly, Thorley © ▆, Sutton, Endall (D. Brown 43), Verma, McQuilkin (May 70), Niven ▆, Thompson ▆, Morley (Spiers 59)     Subs Unused: Sang, Gwilt

​

Prescot Cables: Burton, Hanson, Sloan, Baker, Rouse, Hall (Lancaster 54 ▆), Arnaslam (K. Barlow 68), Davidson, Gonzales, Wilkins, M. Barlow ▆ (Jesus 80)       Subs Unused: Dent, Parny

​