Ruthless Hednesford Town pulled apart Rugby Town to reach the FA Cup Third Qualifying Round.
The Pitmen threatened to break the deadlock on a number of occasions in the first half before Elliott Johnson finished from six-yards out on 24 minutes after Rugby failed to clear their lines at a corner.
The visitors’ goalkeeper Paul Hathaway made several good saves to keep his side in the game with Rugby a little fortunate to head into the break only a goal behind.
However, the Pitmen doubled their lead six minutes after the interval as Manny Duku rounded Hathaway
before finishing into an empty net after Dom McHale pounced on Trey Charles’ misplaced pass in midfield.
Charles was a real thorn in the Pitmen’s side in the first fixture but was completely nullified this time around.
Hednesford sealed their place in the next round on 62 minutes when Duku volleyed the ball into the ground and past Hathaway from close range to score his fourth goal across the two fixtures.
Steve King shuffled his pack just after the hour mark, making use of all five substitutes.
Two of those substitutes Rob Stevenson and Abdulrasaq AlamuTajudeen combined to stretch the home side’s lead with 10 minutes left to play as the former finished the latter’s low cross from eight-yards out.
Rugby Town scored a consolation goal on 85 minutes when Mikey Taylor chested down Edwin Ahenkorah’s pass before twisting and turning away from a number of Hednesford defenders and
firing a low shot into the corner from just inside the penalty area.
That was to be the final major incident of the game and when the referee blew the full-time whistle it was Hednesford Town who were set to travel to Shifnal Town in the Third Qualifying Round of this season’s Emirates FA Cup.
