Pre-Season Friendly

> 19.7.2008

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Hednesford's second pre-season outing of the season went the same way as the first, with defeat this afternoon against UniBond Division One South side Belper Town. Manager Dean Edwards took the opportunity to make changes to his personnel after the Walsall game, with triallist Richard Robinson, formerly with Stratford Town, coming in at right-back. Anthony Maguire and Tyrone Barnett were also given their first starts of pre-season, with injuries to David Brown, Ross Dyer and Mario Pedro all having an effect on the manager's team selection

Both sides started brightly, with Belper's Lee Stevenson testing Stuart Brock with a long-range effort that the Hednesford number one saw past the post after three minutes

The Pitmen swept into an early lead on nine minutes, with summer signing Ross Draper underlining his glowing reputation with his first ever striker for Hednesford. After taking the ball forward from midfield, he was lucky to get the run of the ball just outside the box, allowing him to steady himself and fire past former Ilkeston keeper Paul Pettinger

The home side rallied from this early setback, and pushed their higher level opponents back as they looked to level the game. A shot from Danny Hudson required a despairing goal-line clearance from Barnett to keep the game in the Pitmen's favour on fifteen minutes

Belper's James Ghaichem was providing most of the good work for Belper, and he was the provider for Richard Tracey to head towards goal mid-way through the half, but Brock was equal to his effort with a smart save at his near post

The equaliser that had been threatened came three minutes later. Ghaichem's cross found Anthony Wilson unmarked in the area, with the forward firing a firm shot past Brock to level the match

It was all Belper, as the Pitmen's defence continued to struggle with the attacking threat the hosts offered. Gahichem's corner kick on twenty seven minutes was headed narrowly over by Wilson, with the Pitmen at sixes and sevens

Of the few responses the away side could muster was a free kick from Chad Sheppard that warmed the hands of Pettinger on the half hour after a foul on Louie Briscoe just outside the penalty area

Pettinger was called into action again just before the break, turning away a fierce drive from Briscoe as the Pitmen pressed ahead of half time

the second half started in a blaze of action, with chances at either end within the first two minuets of the restart. Firstly, Brock had to be called upon to deny Wilson with a great diving save after the Belper man had got away from his man to get a shot in

This was followed by a great chance for Hednesford, with Sheppard's cross finding Elliott Durrell, whose shot was only just off target

And then came the controversy; two minutes later, the Pitmen were down to ten men, when Sheppard was shown a straight red card by everyone's favourite referee Mr. Sutton. After clashing with Ghaichem, Sheppard had appeared to raise his arm to the player, prompting him to go down. Mr. Sutton, rather than letting common sense take over as it was a friendly game, decided he wanted his name in the papers instead and made the midfielder walk

The sending off seemed to shake the Pitmen, as they fell behind a couple of minutes later. Wilson, who had been a constant thorn in the Hednesford side, grabbed his second of the afternoon, finishing well with a driven shot from the right, inside Brock's near post

With so few fit players to pick from, Edwards made two changes to the side almost immediately, with Maguire and Durrell being replaced by Jermaine Clarke and Chris Morris

The away side rallied as they looked to find a way back into the game, and Danny Harvey almost grabbed an equaliser, but Pettinger was again in the right place to deny the young centre back

Barnett, who had been on the periphery of the game all afternoon, was presented with a great chance to equalise with twelve minute remaining, but his touch let him down at the crucial moment, allowing Pettinger to steal the ball away from the striker

Pettinger turned out to be Belper's saviour as the game entered the final ten minutes, with the experienced stopper denying Harvey again after he headed goalwards from a corner kick. He also denied Nicky Carter with a save low down in the final minute of the game

All in all, another disappointing day at the office for Edwards and co., but it's still early days, and as they say - isn't this what pre-season is all about?  cds

Stoke City (H) 

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