1,094

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Jamie Cooke

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L L D D W D L W

 

Hebburn Town (A) 12.9.26

The Pitmen finally record their first away win of the National League North season this evening with a battling display at King's Lynn Town, riding out a late fightback from the hosts to hold onto the three points

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Having been handed something of a footballing lesson by South Shields at the weekend, Kelvin Davis finally decided to abandon his controversial three-man defence and elected to move to a more conventional 4-4-2 formation for tonight's long trip to Norfolk. This saw the injured Aaron Hayden replaced by Jamie Morgan, whilst Omari Sterling-James made way for David Abimbola, making his first-ever start for the club

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Lynn returned to the Walks after a successful trip to Darlington at the weekend, beating the former EFL side 1-0 at Blackwell Meadows to move up into eleventh place in the table. Manager Paul Caddis made just the one change to his Yellows side in defence as former Boston United man Zak Mills came in for Rhys Doherty. There was a familiar face in between the sticks for King's Lynn Town in the form of ex-Hednesford loanee Ronnie Hollingshead, who had a spell on loan at Keys Park in the 2022-2023 season when at West Bromwich Albion

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The first corner of the evening on the fourth minute saw the Pitmen play the ball in from the left through Dale Gorman, with Ahkeem Rose and Dylan Mottley-Henry both unable to turn the ball goalwards as the hosts struggled to clear their line; the loose ball ran to Abimbola, who lifted his effort from eighteen yards out high over the crossbar and into the car park behind Hollingshead's goal

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Jamie Cooke did have the ball in the net in the ninth minute as he turned Abimbola's low cross into the net from close range, only for an earlier flag raised against the teenager after he had run the ball over the byeline before he could wrap his right foot around the ball

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The Pitmen were seeing plenty of the early ball, dominating the possession stats as they knocked it about confidently without really hurting the King's Lynn back line. Abimbola showed his physical attributes two minutes later, holding the ball up well with his back to goal and supplying Lenni Cirino with the ball out on the left - his cross drifted over the heads of everyone entering the six-yard box and out of play on the right-hand side

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Hollingshead was alert to the danger posed by a cross from Mottley-Henry on thirteen minutes, coming out to claim the winger's ball ahead of the incoming Cooke at his near post

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Sixty seconds later, Cooke made one of his lung-busting runs down the right flank, racing onto Morgan's pass and taking on Zak Mills before drifting into the box and shooting at goal with a weak shot that Hollingshead easily fielded

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Cirino incurred the wrath of the home fans on seventeen minutes as he was floored by a challenge on him from Michael Clunan, with the home fans feeling that the left-back had made a little too much of the challenge and felt that he was looking to get the experienced former Norwich City man booked

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The Pitmen's bright start to proceedings finally paid dividends midway through the first period as Cirino did well down the left, taking on Clunan and whipping the ball across the face of goal where Rose was on hand to turn the ball home, despite the best efforts of Jahmari Lindsay to keep the ball from going over the line and Mottley-Henry making absolutely certain with a header. After much discussion post-match and a further look at the footage, the goal was awarded to Mottley-Henry as the ball hadn't crossed the line until his touch

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A quick break from the Pitmen sixty seconds later saw them break clear of the King's Lynn defence once more through Cooke, who raced away from Mills before pulling the ball back into the path of Rose - his shot at goal forced Hollingshead into a fine save to turn the ball away from goal

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On twenty-eight minutes, Morgan did brilliantly to intercept an errant pass from Ethan Warne in midfield and make progress down the right before playing a delightful ball through to Cooke, who was pulled up by a late offside flag by the assistant referee after making a move a little too early

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A spell of King's Lynn pressure forced the Pitmen onto the back foot momentarily, as two crosses from Reece Hall-Johnson on the right caused the Pitmen an issue before a low ball in from Warne on thirty-two minutes somehow skipped across the face of the Hednesford penalty area and away from danger

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The sudden bout of King's Lynn pressure told on thirty-eight minutes as a Clunan free-kick into the box was headed upwards by Rose, inviting Sam Hornby to punch the ball clear. However, he made an error of judgement as he tried to come through a sea of bodies to get to the ball and only succeeded in diverting it to Harley Hamilton, who fired past the two Hednesford defenders on the line to equalise. Yet another individual error to add to the catalogue of mistakes made by this infuriatingly inconsistent Hednesford side so far this term

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Cirino picked up the game's first yellow card of the evening on forty-three minutes, much to the delight of the home supporters, as he was penalised by referee Mr Robinson for a foul on Hall-Johnson after the pair had clashed on the King's Lynn right

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Lynn striker Jesse Nwabueze went close to turning the game on its head a minute before the break as he picked the ball up from a King's Lynn free-kick, drifting in from the right before striking a low shot across goal that whistled past Hornby's right-hand post

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The visitors will be a little disappointed at coming in at the break on level terms after having the majority of the attacking play in the first half, deservedly leading through Rose's scruffy goal before Hornby's error of judgement gifted the hosts an equaliser they had barely deserved on the balance of play

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​It was to prove to be a slow start to the second half, with both sides keeping the ball well in the early stages without really hurting the opposition defence. Mottley-Henry did well down the right on fifty-three minutes to take Cooke's pass on, only for a sliding challenge from Lindsay to cut out the former Chester man's return ball to the marauding Cooke in the box

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Two minutes later, the Pitmen made their first change of the evening up front as Abimbola's race was run on his full debut, with the former Bolton Wanderers man replaced by Aaron Jarvis

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Rose almost picked the pocket of Josh McCammon on fifty-six minutes as he very nearly nipped in to nick the defender's short backpass to Hollingshead, but was just beaten by the sharp reactions of the stopper as he beat the Hednesford goalscorer and cleared the danger

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A great run from Hall-Johnson a minute later saw the full-back take the ball deep into the Hednesford half and cross towards Lindsay, who couldn't quite reach the ball as it drifted away from goal

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On the hour mark, good play from Morgan down the right saw him drift inside of Mills and look to get his shot away on the edge of the area, only to see his effort blocked. The rebound dropped to Cooke, who lifted his long-range effort high and wide of goal with a wild first-time effort

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​Jarvis's impact on the game was immediate as the Hednesford number nine restored the Pitmen's lead with a goal of his own creation on sixty-two minutes. Taking down a George Langston pass on the right of the penalty area, Jarvis showed great composure to pull the ball out of the air, bring it inside of Clunan and hold him off before driving a low shot beyond the reach of Hollingshead and into the far corner of the net. A cool finish from the striker, his first goal for the club

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​Things got even better for the Pitmen with their next attack on sixty-seven minutes as Jarvis's physical presence paid dividends once more; Hornby's long, raking free-kick forward was met by the head of Jarvis on the left-hand corner of the box, winning the ball well with his head and nodding it down to Cooke, who was standing in the 'D'. The former Halifax striker chested the ball down before unleashing a wonderful, low shot at goal that beat Hollingshead for pace and nestled in the stopper's right-hand corner of the net. A brilliant strike and a well-deserved goal for Cooke, who had worked hard all evening long

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The Pitmen were in rampant form, with Mottley-Henry, Jarvis and Cooke linking up once more on seventy minutes with a flowing move down the right as Mottley-Henry and Jarvis quickly worked the ball into the path of the free-running Cooke, who was pulled up for a tight offside flag against him before he could shoot

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A minute later, King's Lynn made a bold quadruple change as AFC Wimbledon loanee Ed Leach replaced Hall-Johnson, Tom Scott came on for goalscorer Hamilton, Aaron Jones was preferred to Ryan Tunnicliffe in midfield and Layton Love came on for McCammon

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Gorman - red-carded on Saturday - followed Cirino into the referee's notebook on seventy-three minutes for a crude challenge on Tom Scott that stopped the former Sunderland midfielder from taking full advantage of a slip from Langston

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Lindsay picked up the home side's first booking of the evening as he was shown a yellow card by Mr Robinson for an off-the-ball incident involving Morgan. Mottley-Henry was also booked by the match official for taking his protests a little too far

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​From the resultant free-kick, Cirino lifted his ball into the box and towards Rose at the far post, with the striker turning his effort tamely over the crossbar from close-range

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With eleven minutes remaining, Love created a chance for himself with a clever turn and shot just inside the box as he got the better of Williams, shooting low at goal but seeing his shot come back off the base of Hornby's left-hand post

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Warne looked to take advantage of a misjudgement from Cirino a minute later, as the left-back allowed the ball to drift over his head and into the path of the midfielder, who tried his luck from a very tight angle and could only fire wide of goal

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With eight minutes left, the Pitmen made a further change of personnel in defence as Aaron Harper-Bailey came on for Morgan, prompting a reshuffle in defence involving Williams coming across to play at right-back

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The Pitmen's defensive failings were once again in full view on eighty-six minutes as Williams handed King's Lynn a chance from the spot as he was adjudged to have fouled Love right on the edge of the box, with the substitute going down a little easily to buy a penalty kick off Mr Robinson. Clunan took the spot-kick and struck it at a nice height to Hornby's right, allowing the stopper to make a fine save and turn the ball away via a touch off the post

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Incredibly, just sixty seconds later, the hosts were handed another penalty kick as Mottley-Henry was adjudged to have brought down Nwabueze just inside the Hednesford box as the pair came together. Nwabueze took responsibility for the spot-kick and sent Hornby the wrong way, firing high to the stopper's right to reduce the deficit going into six added minutes

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In all of the madness of the past two minutes, the Pitmen elected to make a change on the left with Omari Sterling-James replacing Cirino, whilst King's Lynn brought on the experienced Adam Rooney for Lindsay

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In the first added minute, Hornby was forced into a save low down to deny Carlton Ubaezuonu, making a regulation save to hold the ball down to his left after the striker had struck a scuffed effort at goal

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In a bid to take the sting out of added time, Cooke was brought off in favour of the more defensively-minded Jai Curran-Nicholls with three of the six minutes already played

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It had been a frantic and nervy final ten minutes of play from the Pitmen, who had shown great character to hang on for their first away win of the season at the fourth attempt. Three points move Davis's side up to the heady heights of sixteenth place in the table and reduce some of the pressure that had been building on the manager in recent games. Another long trip at the weekend sees the Pitmen make another journey up to the North East to face the in-form Hebburn Town, looking for back-to-back wins for the first time this term and move them further up the table

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King's Lynn Town: Hollingshead, Hall-Johnson (Leach 71), Mills, Clunan ©, Hamilton (Scott 71), Ubaezuonu, McCammon (Love 71), Warne, Nwabueze, Tunnicliffe (Jones 71), Lindsay ▆ (Rooney 89)   Subs unused: O. Thomas, Rubio,

Hednesford Town: Hornby, Morgan (Harper-Bailey 82), Langston, Williams ©, Cooke (Curran-Nicholls 90+3), Gorman ▆, Rose, Mottley-Henry ▆, Kinsella, Cirino ▆ (Sterling-James 87), Abimbola (Jarvis 56)     Subs unused: Parke, Sharples, Merry​

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