Saturday 3rd May will see the culmination of an epic season for Hednesford Town when they entertain Congleton Town in the Northern Premier League West Division Play Off Final in what will be their 62nd game of the season. In the Semi Finals, Hednesford saw off Vauxhall Motors 3-1 on Tuesday night while Congleton needed extra time and penalties to beat Chasetown.
The final league table saw Hednesford finish in second place with 82 points and a GD of +41 while Congleton were one place lower with 78 points and a +26 GD. Of those 78 points, 45 were gained at their Cleric Stadium home from 14 wins, three draws and four defeats while they picked up 33 on their travels courtesy of 10 wins, three draws and eight defeats. Those losses came at Runcorn Linnets (0-1), Wythenshawe (1-3), Nantwich Town (2-3), Witton Albion (2-5), Widnes (1-5), Avro (2-3), Hednesford Town (0-1) and Stafford Rangers (0-2). That defeat at Keys Park came on March 1st when 1,356 people saw Nathan Blissett score the only goal of the game in first half stoppage time. On Bonfire Night Congleton had beaten Hednesford by the same score thanks to Peter Williams’ penalty after Manny Duku’s handball, again in time added on in the first half. Williams is The Bears third highest scorer this season with 12 league goals, one behind Daniel Needham and eight behind Max McCarthy who has 20. Dom McHale’s goal on Tuesday was his 14th in the league this season (20 in all competitions) and he is followed by Dan Trickett-Smith and Jack Bearne who have 13 each, again in all competitions.
This will be the fourth time that The Pitmen will have contested a Play Off Final. The first time was back in 2004/5 when they won 1-0 at Chippenham Town to gain promotion from the Southern Premier League, Paul McMahon scoring the only goal. In 2010/11 they went out on penalties after a 2-2 extra time draw against Salisbury City but two years later, they beat FC United of Manchester 2-1 at Keys Park in front of a record crowd of 4,412. Two first half goals from Neil Harvey and Jamey Osborne would prove to be decisive after Mike Norton pulled a goal back in the second half.
Manager Gavin Hurren had a message to the fans ahead of Saturday’s game. “For one final time this season, thank you. 2,200 of you were there on Tuesday night and the noise you created was unbelievable. You’ve been there for us all year, home and away and we’ll need every ounce of that support once again”.
The game is all ticket with no payments or ticket sales available on match day. Tickets can be purchased via the FanBase app and are the usual prices of Adults £11, Concessions £8, Disabled with carer £8, 10-18 years old £3, U10s are £1 but all under 16s must be accompanied by a paying adult.
The fixture will be segregated with away fans entering through turnstiles 1A and 1B. Home fans should use turnstiles 2A, 2B, 3A and 3B. On Sunday 4th May Hednesford Town Ladies play their last home game of the season knowing that a draw will be enough for them to become West Midlands Regional Women’s League Division One North Champions. They entertain fourth placed Walsall Women who are the only team who can catch them. Kick off is 2pm and admission is free.
