My good friend John Ball tells me that the FA Cup First Qualifying Round replay away at Wednesfield went the way the first game should have gone -Hednesford were soon in control and despite some brave goalkeeping they took the lead when from a free kick Colin Lambert heads home.
The Pitmen, now with their tails up, are attacking non-stop and goals from Tyrone Streete and Joe O’Connor gave them a comfortable half-time lead.
The second half saw more relentless pressure from the Pitmen as the fourth and the best goal of the game was executed from a free-kick some 25 yards out by Sean Devine, whose left-footed kick found the top right-hand corner of the net.
Wednesfield must have been wishing for the final whistle now, but the Pitmen were not finished as first Andy Comyn finds the net with a header for the fifth and then Gary Fitzpatrick also scores with his head with minutes to go to register a great 6-0 win and with the crowd chanting `who`s next, bring ‘em on`.
Well, the Second Qualifying Round favoured Hednesford as they were drawn at home against Southern Midland Division side Evesham Town.
Interestingly this would be the first-ever meeting between the two clubs.
John Ball tells me that there used to be a crowd of Hednesford supporters who used to gather on the terrace at the halfway line and called themselves the `Halfway Club`, which sounds quite appropriate.
The game itself was not a stormer as Evesham had clearly come to play deep with the whole side back behind the ball hoping to nick something on the break, but with Hednesford having most, if not all, of the possession, a goal must come at some stage.
However, possession counts for nothing unless you put the ball in the back of the net.
In the end, that`s exactly what Hednesford did when just before half-time and that man O’Connor slotted the ball home.
Evesham came out in the second half with a bit more purpose to their play, but this only sees the away side take control as O’Connor heads home a free-kick.
Hednesford now took a real grip on the game and further pressure from them sees former Southampton midfielder George Lawrence score the fourth on his debut.
Then it was the turn of Steve Essex to get into the act as he does an acrobatic overhead kick to find the back of the Evesham net.
A rare break by Evesham resulted in a penalty when Essex brought down a Robins forward to show you in football that one minute you are the star and the next the villain!
Up stepped Luke Yates and he put the ball away past the outstretched Scott Cooksey.
The sixth goal came when a goalmouth scramble and the rebound off the keeper was headed home by Streete.
So continues the FA Cup journey and the anticipation of the Third Qualifying Round draw.
And it produced another home draw, but this time a real cup tie in the waiting as Hednesford have been drawn at home to local rivals Tamworth who were, at the time of the game, top of the Southern League.
The atmosphere for the game was electric with the Heath Hayes’ end decked out in red and white with the contingent of Tamworth fans.
It was another fine day for football, and both sets of supporters were confident of further progress.
Some say you can start too quickly and that is precisely what happened with Hednesford, who were two goals up in the first 11 minutes.
Tyrone Streete got the first and then Keith Russell scored the second, latching on to Bernard McNally’s through ball to fire home past Tony Rowe in the Tamworth goal.
But as I stated earlier, there is another saying: ‘you are at your most vulnerable when you have just scored’, and within 3 minutes Tamworth were back in the game through Ian Bennett.
It was now that Tamworth were gaining control of the game and the pace of Bennett, Paul Hunter, and Gary Smith were a constant threat and after a few near misses, the Lambs were level when Smith strode through to slide a shot
past Cooksey to send the vociferous away supporters into raptures.But how football, and especially the FA Cup, can bring so much drama, because after the fightback by Tamworth, it was Hednesford who came out in the second half and regained their composure when first leading scorer Joe O’Connor finished off a neat move, and then the impressive Keith Russell added a fourth - his second of the game - when he put the final touch to an excellent lob from Paul Carty.
But unlike in the first half, the Pitmen were in no mood to let their advantage slip for a second time.
Although they were under severe pressure at times as Tamworth searched for a way back into the game, the Pitmen stood firm to win the game 4-2 and the taming of the Lambs had been completed in a great cup tie which was by no means an easy stroll.
As before, Hednesford waited in anticipation for the Fourth Qualifying Round draw and again it was another home draw and would you believe it against another old rival, Telford United.
There was a big `if` to this game and that was that if the Pitmen were to win to go through to the First Round, it would have been only the second time in their history when, back in 1919/20, Hednesford were beaten 2-0 by Castleford Town.
Fans were very apprehensive about the game. The weather was sunny again with a bumper crowd of 1,343.
From the kick-off, the Pitmen went straight on the front foot and after a couple of early chances, they finally took the lead at the 17th minute when Streete found George Lawrence, who rounded the Telford defender to slam the ball into the net.
With the crowd behind them, for some reason, the Pitmen seemed to take their foot off the pedal and the game became scrappy with a lot of long balls.
One player stood out for Hednesford during this period and that was goalkeeper Scott Cooksey, who made some superb saves during Telford pressure.
In the second half it was still backs against the wall for Hednesford defending their lead, but the second elusive goal which, for a time did not look like it was going to materialise, finally came in the 88th minute when Telford played a dangerous ball across their own defence. Tyrone Streete intercepted it and fired home to seal Telford’s fate.
So, now it is time for the big boys to enter the draw on the following Monday.
Will the draw favour the Pitmen?
The dream continues in part 3 of the road to the Riverside.
<3> (Micky Taylor`s excellent book `Non-League Football - A Roller Coaster Ride To Beat Any` is available to buy from Amazon priced £12.99 (Kindle version £3.99. All proceeds to Cancer Research)
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