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Bamber Bridge (H) 18.11.25

The Pitmen move themselves up to second place in the Northern Premier League this evening as they edge out a spirited Hyde United side at a drenched Keys Park
 
Having recorded back-to-back wins in the past ten days to get their season back on track, manager Gavin Hurren stuck largely with the same side that had lifted his side back into the top four with only two enforced change to the side that had started the 2-0 victory over Stocksbridge Park Steels on Saturday; Dan Turner returned to the side ahead of the injured Jermaine Hylton, whilst Simeon Maye came back into the XI after Joe Doyle-Charles was also ruled out. There was some good news on the injury front for the Hednesford gaffer, with Elliott Johnson passed fit to be named amongst the substitutes and Jacob Gwilt now back in full training after a long lay-off
 
Mid-table dwelling Hyde made their second away trip in four days off the back of a shock 3-2 defeat at bottom of the table Workington, which had seen the Tigers reduced to nine men. Newly-appointed manager Martin Coyne - who had taken over from Nicky Spooner last month – made three changes to his side for tonight’s trip south as McMahon replaced Scott Duxbury, Max Harrop came in for Jordan Scanlon in midfield and Antoine Makoli was preferred to Nyal Bell up front
 
The incessant rain that had hit the west side of the country during the day had claimed several non-league games in the North-West but was not a problem for the state-of-the-art Keys Park pitch, which passed its first real weather test with flying colours over the following ninety minutes with no standing water or lasting damage
 
The hosts looked to make their patented quick start to proceedings with the game’s first chance in the second minute; Ryan Wynter’s long throw from the left was flicked on and into the path of Ollie Harrison, whose looping header was guided just over the crossbar and onto the roof of the net

Hyde looked to counter through skipper Jack Redshaw two minutes later as the Hyde midfielder picked the ball up just outside the Hednesford penalty area before being scythed down by Joss Labadie. Redshaw took the resultant kick and drilled in a low shot underneath the Hednesford wall, forcing Tony Breeden into a save low down to his left to palm the ball away
 
Hyde were bright and lively on the counter-attack but appeared vulnerable in defence as the likes of Dom McHale and Montel Gibson forced errors out of the Tigers' defenders in the early exchanges. Chris Hussey picked up a loose pass out of defence in the eighth minute, cutting inside from the left flank and trying his luck from eighteen yards out with a curling shot that just cleared goalkeeper Yusuf Mersin’s crossbar
 
Two minutes later, Hussey delivered one of his quality balls into the box after Labadie had won a free-kick thirty yards from goal; the defender’s inswinging ball into the box was headed back across goal by Harrison and into the path of McHale, who clashed with Mersin before the ball was turned into the net at the second attempt. However, referee Mr Scott pulled play back for an earlier foul on Mersin in the build-up which left the stopper requiring treatment to his face after a high boot from McHale
 
The Pitmen were starting to get on top of proceedings, with Gibson making another marauding run in behind the Hyde defence on twelve minutes after a superb reverse pass from McHale. However, with only Turner to aim at, Gibson’s ball into the danger zone was turned behind by McMahon for a corner kick
 
Hussey came across to take the corner kick and showed great vision to play a quick short corner to McHale, who had been criminally left completely unmarked on the corner of the Hyde penalty area. The Magic Man took a touch before unleashing a superb curling effort with his left foot that beat Mersin and found the far corner of the net. Another brilliant McHale goal to add to his cache of brilliant strikes at Hednesford
 
Back came the visitors, with Redshaw doing well to take the ball past a dawdling Wynter on fifteen minutes, entering the penalty area down the left and pulling the ball back towards Lewis Rawthorn, who was denied by some excellent defending from Harrison
 
Three minutes later, Redshaw tried his luck again from an angle as a cross from Kieran Lloyd on the right was missed by three Hednesford defenders and dropped to the midfielder, whose first-time shot cleared the crossbar. In hindsight, Redshaw should probably have done better with the effort, considering his position
 
Birthday boy Harrison was having a fine game for the Pitmen in the first quarter, making yet another timely block on twenty-two minutes to deny Rawsthorn as the striker got in behind the Hednesford defence and fired in a low angled shot from ten yards out that the giant centre-back managed to get back and turn the ball behind for a corner to Hyde
 
The resultant corner was floated in by Redshaw and cleared as far as Makoli, who sliced his effort high over Breeden’s crossbar with the Hednesford defence looming down on him
 
Redshaw was having a fine game for the away side and went agonisingly close to equalising on twenty-four minutes. Making another powerful run into the box down the left, the Hyde skipper fired in a low shot that beat the dive of Breeden and came back off the outside of the stopper’s right-hand post
 
Some clever play from Gibson saw the in-form striker create a chance for himself out of nothing on twenty-four minutes as he brought McHale’s cross down out of the air and acrobatically turned the ball goalwards from twelve yards but got a little too much on his effort, sending the ball narrowly over the crossbar
 
Another man in white having a fine game was Jamie Morgan, making an overlapping run down the right to take McHale’s pass into space on twenty-seven minutes; his low cross into the box toward Gibson was cut out by the backtracking McMahon, turning the ball behind for another Hednesford corner kick
 
McHale continued to torment the Hyde defence with his slippery play, earning the Pitmen a free-kick to the right of the penalty area on thirty-three minutes after being brought down by Lewis Thompson. Hussey came across to take the kick, level with the penalty area, and floated in a fine ball to the far post that was powerfully headed back across goal by Harrison to Labadie, who beat Gibson to the ball and turned it home from a yard out to record his first-ever Hednesford goal
 
Despite being two goals down, Hyde continued to press through the likes of Rawsthorn, who was pulled back by a late offside flag from the assistant on the Wimblebury side on thirty-five minutes as he latched onto a pass from Tom Pratt in behind Wynter
 
Pratt picked up the game’s first booking of the evening three minutes later as he was rightly shown a yellow card by Mr Scott for a crude late sliding challenge on Maye thirty yards from goal. Hussey and Trickett-Smith stood over the ball, at the free-kick with Trickett-Smith curling in a wicked shot at goal that completely flat-footed Mersin and just swerved wide of the stopper’s left-hand post
 
With five minutes of the first half remaining, a Hyde free-kick from the left was cleared by the Hednesford defence as far as McHale, who did brilliantly to carry the ball fifty yards and past three Hyde defenders before unfortunately stumbling at the crucial moment on the edge of the penalty area, allowing Pratt to make the challenge and clear
 
Turner was presented with a great chance to make it three for the Pitmen on forty-three minutes as he took advantage of a slip from Lloyd, who mis-controlled a cross-field pass from Morgan and allowed Turner to steal the ball from him. The striker gave the advancing Mersin the eyes but could only lift his angled effort over the crossbar from twelve yards out
 
In the first of three added minutes, Hussey made a move into the Hyde box and whipped in a cross-cum-shot that had Mersin scrambling backwards to tip the ball over the crossbar for a Hednesford corner, with the ball dipping into the far corner of the net
 
It had been an authoritative first period from the hosts, who had shown a ruthlessness in front of goal that Hyde had lacked despite their neat, tidy and pacy play going forwards. Former Hyde loanee McHale in particular, had been a menace to the Tigers defence, constantly probing down the right as well as showing some excellent tracking back to support Morgan
 
The visitors, perhaps predictably, came out with a more positive set-up at the start of the second half and had the ball in the net just three minutes in; a run down the left from Thompson saw him play Rawsthorn in on goal, with the striker turning the ball past Breeden from a tight angle. However, the striker had moved too early in the move and had been flagged by the assistant on the main stand side seconds earlier
 
Two minutes later, Turner did well to turn past Lloyd down the left, weaving his way past the full-back before being sent sprawling by the former Bury man. Hussey’s ball in was aimed at Wynter, who was beaten to the out swinging ball by McMahon
 
Hyde were rewarded for their bright start to the second half on fifty-three minutes as former Stalybridge striker Rawsthorn reduced the deficit. Patient build-up just outside the Hednesford box saw Redshaw strike a firm effort at goal that Breeden did well to keep out with a good parry, only for Rawsthorn to follow up and turn the rebound into the net from close range after following the ball in
 
With their tails up, Hyde pressed the Hednesford defence in search of a quickfire equaliser; Makoli went close to grabbing the Tigers’ second on fifty-seven minutes as he executed a fine dribble into the box from the right, firing in a low shot that skipped just wide of Breeden’s left-hand post
 
On the hour mark, the Pitmen made their first change of the evening as goalscorer Labadie came off and was replaced by Joel Taylor; this saw a shift in the Pitmen’s formation with Hussey slotting in a third centre-back and Trickett-Smith dropping into a deeper role in central midfield
 
Hyde made a double change of their own two minutes later as the already-booked Pratt was replaced by Scanlon and Makoli was, perhaps a little surprisingly, replaced by Ben Kershaw
 
Midway through the second half, a quick counter from Hyde saw Max Harrop find some space down the right, turning inside Hussey but firing his low cross into Breeden’s side-netting rather than looking to pick out Rawsthorn in the six-yard box
 
The Pitmen made an attacking change on sixty-seven minutes as the hard-working but out-of-luck Turner was replaced by Ahkeem Rose. This saw Gibson move out to the left and Rose play as the central striker
 
Rose went close to repeating Saturday’s cameo with an instant goal as he picked up a loose pass in the centre of midfield and drove at the Hyde defence, unleashing a low shot that took a couple of bounces on the sodden turf as it flew just past Mersin’s right-hand post
 
There were muted calls for a penalty kick from the visitors on seventy minutes as a cross from Thompson appeared to strike the upper arm of Harrison as the defender looked to head it away. Mr Scott was unimpressed, however, and the game continued
 
Hyde made another change at this juncture as youngster Harry Ditchfield came on for full-back Thompson, who had endured a torrid evening at the hands of McHale
 
The Pitmen very swiftly followed this up on seventy-two minutes with a defensive change of their own as Johnson made his long-awaited comeback from injury as he replaced Wynter. Once again, this prompted a tactical shift in defence for the Pitmen, with Harrison and Hussey moving across to allow Johnson to play as the left-sided centre-back
 
Another spot-on Hussey corner kick on seventy-four minutes was sent into the six-yard box from the right, where somehow the ball missed everyone coming in at the far post and drifted out of play on the left touchline
 
A rare piece of sloppy play from Maye on seventy-seven presented Hyde with a great chance to equalise; the defensive midfielder was caught over-playing thirty yards from his own goal and had his pocket picked by Redshaw, who played Rawsthorn into space in behind Morgan down the Hyde left. A combination of Morgan and Harrison managed to force the striker wide of goal, with Harrison eventually putting in a block tackle to clear the ball away for a Hyde corner
 
The combative Harrop came off worst in a challenge from Harrison on seventy-eight minutes and was helped off by the Hyde physio as he was replaced by Bell after admitting defeat in carrying on
 
The Pitmen made what was to be their final change of the evening with eleven minutes remaining as the excellent McHale was given a warm reception from the home crowd as he was replaced by Jonny Edwards. This meant a further tactical tweak, with Rose moving out to the left flank to allow Edwards to play down the middle as the target man
 
Breeden made a regulation save low down to his right to claim an ambitious effort from Bell on eighty-one minutes after the substitute tried his luck from fully twenty-five yards with a shot all along the ground
 
With time starting to slip away, Hyde pressed the Pitmen for several phases of play as they searched for their elusive equaliser; three successive balls into the box  saw the dominant figure of Harrison proving to be an absolute rock at the back with a series of superb clearing headers as the Pitmen struggled to get the ball out of their own third of the pitch
 
On eighty-five minutes, Morgan made a superb challenge on Redshaw to deny the midfielder a second bite of the cherry on the left-hand corner of the Hednesford penalty area after patient build-up play from Hyde saw them play it from right to left
 
A rare counter from the Pitmen on eighty-seven minutes saw Trickett-Smith punt the ball into space down the right for Edwards to chase onto, with the burly striker doing well to hold off McMahon and strike a shot from an angle that was easily fielded by Mersin at his near post
 
With the added time board showing seven minutes, Hyde launched a final late salvo on the Hednesford goal as they tried to force home a late, late leveller. Successive corner kicks from the left were played to the far post on both occasions, with Harrison rising majestically to head both balls in away from danger. The second ball in fell at the feet of Fearnley on the edge of the box, with the former Bolton Wanderers midfielder lifting his rushed effort high over the crossbar
 
More pressure coming from the Hyde left on the fifth minute of added time saw Ditchfield make a run down the flank before being disposed by Morgan, who in turn was fouled by the substitute as he tried to take the ball forwards
 
It had been a hard-fought three points in the rain from the Pitmen, who had been hanging on in the latter stages of the game as Hyde dominated the late exchanges in search of a leveller. However, Hurren’s men had shown plenty of grit and determination to dig in and grind out a third win on the bounce, which moves them up to second place in the table and within four points of early-season leaders Warrington Rylands. A full week’s rest is in order for the Pitmen with no scheduled game at the weekend, before they return to Keys Park for their third of four home games in succession when Bamber Bridge visit this time next week
 
Hednesford Town: Breeden, Morgan, Hussey, Labadie © (Taylor 60), Harrison, Wynter (Johnson 72), Trickett-Smith, Maye, Gibson, McHale (Edwards 79), Turner (Rose 67)      Sub unused: Parke
 
Hyde United: Mersin, Lloyd, Thompson (Ditchfield 70), Pratt ▆ (Scanlon 62), McMahon, Hall, Harrop (Bell 79), Fearnley, Rawsthorn, Redshaw ©, Makoli (Kershaw 62 ▆)      Sub unused: Jones-Griffiths