On Saturday 8th February Hednesford Town will take the 34 mile journey to the north of the County where they will play Hanley Town in a Northern Premier League West Division game which is important to both teams but for different reasons.
Following their hard earned 2-0 win at Wythenshawe on Tuesday night, The Pitmen moved up into fourth place in the table with 50 points from 29 games. Down at the other end of the league, Hanley sit in 21st spot with 16 points from 28 games, a massive 18 points adrift of safety. Out of their 14 home games they have won just two, 3-1 against Wythenshawe and 2-1 against Witton Albion to go with a goalless draw with Newcastle Town and 11 defeats. Their away record is slightly better as they have picked up nine points from one win, 3-0 at Mossley, six draws and seven defeats. One of those draws came at Keys Park on 22nd October when a later Elliott Johnson goal cancelled out AJ Leitch-Smith’s 33rd minute opener. In 2023/24 Hanley did the double over Hednesford, winning 2-1 at Keys Park with two own goals from Sam Paddock and Jack Kelly sandwiching Desean Martin’s spectacular goal for the home side and then triumphing 3-1 at Hanley, Kieran Brown (2) and Joe Mwasile scoring with Rakeem Reid grabbing Hednesford’s consolation.
This season, Hanley’s leading scorers are captain and centre back Joel Stair and Burton Albion loanee Dylan Scott with five league goals each and Lewis Holdham with three. Scott is now on loan at Mickleover while Holdham has returned to his previous club Abbey Hulton. Off the field Tom McGrew was appointed Chairman on 18th January after Ron McIlreavy’s resignation and will be holding a Q&A at the club on 13th February. Their average attendance so far in 2024/25 is 199 with the season’s best of 365 coming against Kidsgrove Athletic.
In his post-match interview on Tuesday Hednesford Assistant Manager Lee Vaughan looked forward to the game against what he reckons is “a tough Hanley side, similar to Wythenshawe”, adding that they would “look at the injuries and go again”. Chris Hussey is 50/50 for the game and will face a late fitness test as will Elliott Johnson who is expected to be fit along with Joel Taylor. Jacob Gwilt who went off injured on Tuesday also faces a late test, but Dan Sparkes and Omar Holness will miss out. Jake Jervis is still two to three weeks away and Rob Stevenson is out long term. Sion Spence, Abdulrasaq Alamu-Tajudeen and Zidan Sutherland are all available.
Hanley Town play at the Afford Rent-A-Car Stadium, Abbey Lane, Hanley ST2 8AJ where they have been since 1974 when it was known as Potteries Park. Admission will be £10 adults, £5 concessions, £4 U18s and U12s free with a paying adult with 50% off for Stoke City and Port Vale season ticket holders. The match day programme costs £2 and kick off is 3pm.
On Sunday 9th February table topping Hednesford Town Ladies are at home to Telford United. The game kicks off at 2pm with admission being £3 adults and £1 concessions.
