The pressure continues to mount on the Pitmen as their winless run is extended to eleven games this afternoon after a late double strike from Vauxhall Motors saw the hosts clinch all three points against their fellow strugglers

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Last weekend's battling draw against Runcorn Linnets had staved off the threat of the Pitmen dropping to the foot of the table for seven days at least, with player/manager Danny Glover making two changes to his side for today's trip up to Ellesmere Port as injured left-back Jack Kelly was replaced by Jacob Gwilt and Wembuanda Star Mayemba was relegated to the substitutes bench as Demetri Brown was handed his full debut up front

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Eighteenth-placed Motors had parted ways with long-serving manager Mike McGraa last week following their 2-0 defeat at 1874 Northwich last week, with Joe Heath taking the reigns as interim manager ahead of today's game. Heath was without regular stopper Sam Booth so he handed a first start of the season to Ally Hughes between the sticks in the first of two changes to the Motors side; the other change came in attack as Jordan Deer came in ahead of Sam Hughes

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The game had perpetually been in doubt for much of the day as regular heavy downpours on the Rivacre Park pitch meant frantic efforts had to be made by the groundstaff and volunteers to keep clearing the water off the pitch and make it playable ahead of kick-off. Mercifully, the rain was to hold off for the ninety minutes of play, leaving the surface heavy and slippery for the players to adapt to

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Backed by another superb away following, Hednesford started well, in keeping with many of their recent games as they looked for an early breakthrough. Lucas Yeomans and Max Dixon looked to make plenty of headway down the right early on, with Dixon doing well to hold off the attentions of Adam Hughes in the second minute as he drove towards the byeline and sent over a low cross towards Glover, who was beaten to the ball by Ben Dufton-Kelly

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A minute later, the men in red broke quickly again down the right through Dixon, whose shot was blocked well by Tom Mitchell, who also did well to divert Glover's follow-up shot away from goal. Joe Thompson seized upon the loose ball but drove his low shot from the edge of the penalty area narrowly wide of Ally Hughes's right-hand post

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Loanee goalkeeper Ryan Brown - who had had a topsy-turvy first two games for the Pitmen since joining them from Kidsgrove Athletic last month - made the first of a series of fine saves to deny Motors in the sixth minute of the game, tipping a curling effort from the bright and breezy Michael Burkey around his left-hand post for a corner kick to the hosts, although the shot may have been curling wide of the post anyway

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Two minutes later, Brown made an even better save, palming a long-range effort from Ethan Gouldbourne over the crossbar for another Motors corner after the right-back had been given time and space to shoot from eighteen yards out

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Dixon and Demetri Brown linked up well on the edge of the Vauxhall Motors penalty area in the eleventh minute as they tried to play Glover in on goal, only for Motors to turn the ball behind for a corner kick. However, the same tired narrative of the season so far once again played out for the Pitmen from the resultant corner kick as Joe Morley's weakly-struck flag kick sailed straight into the arms of the lanky Ally Hughes, under no pressure from anyone in a red shirt. Time and again, the Pitmen are guilty of wasting good opportunities from set-pieces as they have no real quality when Kelly is not fit or available to take them

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However, the Pitmen did get their noses in front with a classic route one goal in the fifteenth minute as gaffer Glover led from the front with his second goal in two league games; the player/manager seized upon a loose ball in midfield and drove past a couple of challenges, taking the ball into the penalty area unchallenged before confidently sidefooting the ball past the onrushing Ally Hughes from fifteen yards out

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Rather than take the game on, however, the Pitmen elected to sit on their slender lead and allow the home side to come back at them, something that perhaps was ill-advised in light of recent defensive performances. On twenty minutes, the dangerous Burkey drove past Yeomans and into the penalty area, setting up Deer for a shot that he skewed wide of goal with only Ryan Brown to beat at the far post

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Motors had their tails up, playing with the wind at their backs and using it to good effect as they hit the Pitmen on the counter out wide on several occasions. Good play involving Buckey and Adam Hughes down the left opened the Pitmen up once more midway through the first half, with Burkey's cross drifting wide of the far post

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The Pitmen continued to live dangerously, with Griffiths making a goalline clearance on twenty-five minutes after Burkey's initial shot was palmed away by Ryan Brown into the path of  Ben Holmes, whose rebounded effort beat the stopper but was cleared off the line by the retreating Hednesford skipper

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A minute later, Lewis Buckley tested the reflexes of the young loanee stopper as his well-struck driven shot from twenty yards out was pushed away by Brown once more

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Five minutes later, the overworked Ryan Brown made yet another fine stop to add to his showreel of saves in the first half as he dived to his left to push away a curling shot from Deer once more after Burkey's pace had beaten Yeomans once more down the left before laying the ball back to the young forward

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A series of corner kicks, mainly from the right, tested the Pitmen's resolve just after the half-hour mark as Vauxhall Motors pressed with authority, looking to use their height advantage through defenders Dufton-Kelly and Mitchell. Ryan Brown almost blotted his copybook on thirty-five minutes as he fumbled another Burkey wind-assisted corner from the left at his far post before managing to recover and claim the ball at the second attempt ahead of Deer

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At the other end, the Pitmen were offering very little in the way of an attacking threat despite holding the lead, with the lightweight and inexperienced pair of Morley and Gwilt really struggling to make any headway down the left. Glover continued to work hard as the target man, taking plenty of punishment from the Vauxhall Motors centre-backs and he looked to get Demetri Brown and Dixon back into the game

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On forty minutes, Yeomans picked up the game's first yellow card as the young right-back was cautioned for felling the tricky Burkey one time too many for referee Mr Wood's liking on the halfway line

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It would have been slightly unfair for the hosts not to have been on level terms at least at the break after largely dominating the first period, with the men in white finally grabbing a leveller two minutes before half-time. Gouldbourne was allowed to make a run down the right, sending over a cross into the box that Ryan Brown tried to push away from goal, only for Harwood to nip in and turn the ball underneath the stopper and into the net

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Motors finished the half strongly as they won another series of late corner kicks, looking to turn the game on its head in just a couple of minutes. The Pitmen - now desperate for the half-time whistle - did enough to clear their lines at the near post through a combination of Griffiths and Glover

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It was all to play for at the break, although the scoreline was an unfair reflection of the one-way nature of the first half as Motors will have been slightly aggrieved at not being a couple of goals ahead, having peppered the Hednesford goal with efforts that Ryan Brown had been equal to or had gone just wide of the target. The visitors elected to make a change ahead of the second half starting as the hard-running Dixon was taken off after picking up a knock and was replaced by Mikey Nelson on the right, who was making his first appearance of the season after suffering an injury in pre-season

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The Pitmen took immediate advantage of this positional shift as they took the lead for the second time in the afternoon just three minutes after the restart; Glover turned provider on this occasion as he got on the end of Thompson's flick-on to get goal side of Gouldbourne, getting to the byeline before pulling the ball back into the six-yard box. Ally Hughes got a slight touch on the ball at his near post but could only divert it into the path of Demetri Brown, who turned the ball into the empty net from four yards out. It was his first-ever Hednesford goal over his two spells at the club and a timely strike to give the Pitmen something to hold onto in the second half

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Back came the hosts as they looked for an immediate response, with Deer looking for a penalty kick from Mr Wood on fifty-two minutes as he took a tumble in the area under pressure from Ritchie Sutton. The referee took a long, hard look at the incident but allowed play to continue, despite the forward's protests

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Tom Thorley was presented with a good chance to further extend the Pitmen's advantage on fifty-eight minutes as neat play down the left saw Glover and Morley involved in working the ball across the face of the box and into the path of the midfielder, whose struck a weak and, frankly, unconvincing, low shot at goal that was blocked by Dufton-Kelly

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On the hour mark, a quick break from Motors down the right saw Gouldbourne supply Holmes with the ball, with the forward whipping in a fine cross that skipped across the face of goal and just out of reach of the incoming Harwood at the far post

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Two minutes later, the Pitmen were once again reduced to ten men as the already-booked Yeomans was given his marching orders by Mr Wood after yet another mis-timed challenge on Burkey out on the left flank had sent the winger sprawling. This made it five red cards in the Pitmen's first thirteen games of the season - a terrible stat and a damning indictment on the team's lack of discipline, something they can ill-afford with the situation they currently find themselves in. Burkey took the resultant free-kick on the left and whipped it into the six-yard box, where Harwood headed well over the crossbar under pressure from Sutton

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Following Yeomans' red card, both sides elected to make changes soon after to counter this development. The hosts brought on forward Joe Brandon in place of defender Gouldbourne, whilst the Pitmen took off the disappointing Morley and brought on centre-back Sam Paddock. This saw Griffiths move over to right-back as Paddock slotted into the centre-back role alongside veteran Sutton

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Adam Hughes picked up Motors' first booking of the afternoon on sixty-eight minutes as the left-back was rightly shown a yellow card by Mr Wood for a late and unconvincing foul on Nelson to stop the Canadian from breaking down the right flank

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More corners came and went from the hosts as they started to crank up the pressure on Hednesford as we entered the final twenty minutes of the game. Ryan Brown made another confident save on seventy-two minutes as he claimed the ball from Deer from another inswinging Burkey cross from the left had been met by the former England Futsal man

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More woe was to befall the Pitmen on seventy-seven minutes as they continued to hang onto their slender lead in defending another of the endless stream of corners. Paddock looked to challenge Holmes for the ball and landed in a heap inside his own six-yard box. It initially looked like an innocuous coming-together between the players but Paddock stayed down after the contact was made and was eventually withdrawn with what was later revealed as a broken leg and was replaced by Jez Abbey

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Motors continued to pound the Hednesford goal with chances as Burkey made another flying run down the left on eighty minutes, cutting inside before unleashing a shot that was pushed back to him by Ryan Brown before the winger sent over a low cross with the rebound that drifted away from the strikers

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The Pitmen have a regular and infuriating proclivity for conceding late goals so it came as little to surprise to their away following that they allowed Vauxhall Motors to level matters once more with seven minutes of the game remaining; Burkey's deep corner kick to the far post was turned goalwards by the boot of Jordan Wynne, who saw his effort come back off the post before running kindly to Mitchell, who turned the loose ball home from close-range

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All of the momentum had now swung the way of the home side as the Pitmen desperately tried to hang on to the point, with Burkley forcing Ryan Brown into yet another fine save just a minute later with a chipped shot from twelve yards out that the young stopper pushed over his crossbar for a corner kick

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Motors completed the turnaround on eighty-seven minutes with the winning goal through Deer; unsurprisingly, the goal was to come as a result of a Motors corner kick, as Deer played a short ball into the path of Burkey before taking it back off the midfielder and changing the angle of approach, lashing in a shot from the corner of the box that went through a crowd of players and ended up in the far corner of the net. there was some confusion as to whether someone had got a touch en route to goal, but Deer took the adulation from his team-mates

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This knocked the stuffing out of the Pitmen, who had defended gallantly through the second half but had once again come up short in the final minutes of the game as the momentum had swung towards the hosts late on. In a bid to see the game out, Motors made two late changes as Bobby Beaumont replaced goalscorer Harwood and Ste Rigby came on for Deer a few moments after the winner

 

There was time for Demetri Brown to be handed a great chance to level matters deep into added time as the visitors launched one final move with a long punt forward to Glover, whose flick-on fell kindly to Demetri Brown in front of the goal. However, a last-ditch challenge from skipper Mitchell somehow managed to guide the ball away from the striker before he could apply the finish and hand the Pitmen a late corner that was, perhaps predictably, wasted

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An eighth defeat in ten games for the Pitmen then leaves them staring down the barrel, having played several games more than any side around them and only Trafford - also with games in hand on them - faring worse than them currently in the league table. An absolutely crucial bottom-of-the-table clash at City of Liverpool follows next weekend for Glover and his men before they face a horrible-looking run of fixtures that involve playing five of the top six before the end of November. On current form, it doesn't bear thinking about where they may be in the league table by the time December rolls around

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Vauxhall Motors: Ally Hughes, Gouldbourne (Brandon 66), Adam Hughes ▆, Dufton-Kelly, Mitchell ©, Wynne ▆, Burkey, Holmes, Buckley, Deer (Rigby 90), Harwood (Beaumont 90)       Subs Unused; James, Moscrop

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Hednesford Town: R. Brown, Yeomans▆▆ (62), Gwilt, Thorley, Sutton, Griffiths ©, Morley (Paddock 66 (Abbey 77)), Thompson ▆, Glover, D. Brown, Dixon (Nelson 45)      Subs Unused: Mayemba, Richards

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