Eastwood Town 2 Hednesford Town 1

Sep 11 2008

Hednesford Town lost their first match of the season away at Eastwood Town despite Tom Marshall opening the scoring with a 30 yard thunderbolt.

Manager Dean Edwards made one change from the team which had an unbeaten start to the season. Chad Sheppard was selected in place of Mark Briggs who dropped down to the subs bench.

Sheppard was selected to add extra bite into the midfield but his enthusiasm soon got him into trouble when a firm challenge resulted in him being spoken to by the referee.

With both defences on top it took nearly 15 minutes before a keeper was forced into a save, Stuart Brock holding onto Ian Holmes strike from the left of the box.

In the 20th minute Louie Briscoe made a forward run from the half way line but he was tracked by Anton Foster who forced the Pitmen midfield player to the left of the penalty area where he ended up losing the ball.

The play quickly moved up the field and nearly created a problem for the Pitmen when Decio Gomes allowed the ball to roll to Brock. The ball slowed in the long grass but the Pitmen keeper was on his toes and raced to the edge of his box before an Eastwood forward could take any advantage.

Brock was the busier of the two keepers and made a reaction save to foil a Mark Smith effort which he helped towards goal from a long free kick from the left.

Brock had to be brave soon after when diving at the feet of Richard Dunning to deny the Eastwood captain a shooting opportunity.

In the 35th minute after a period of Eastwood pressure it was the Pitmen who scored first when Tom Marshall hit a thunderbolt of a shot into the top right hand corner of the net.

The goal came after a good move forward was halted with a pass back to Marshall on the half way line. He looked up and advanced forward and with no challenge being made he was not going to let the opportunity of shooting go by and on this occasion he got everything right as the ball screamed past Alex Goddard from 30 yards.

The Pitmen's joy was short lived as almost from the restart the home team were back on level terms. A quick throw in on the right gave full back Chris Shaw the chance to hit a cross into the box but his effort to his forwards was over hit foiling Brock in the process. The keeper appeared to get underneath the ball and with a helpful nudge from a home forward the ball went through his hands and into the net to give Eastwood an unlikely equaliser.

Almost from the start of the second half Eastwood nearly took the lead but a scuffed shot from Ian Holmes when well placed let the Pitmen off but there was no luck in the 53rd minute when Holmes finished off from close range after a corner was not cleared.

The corner was firmly hit into the six yard box where an Eastwood player headed the ball down towards goal; Brock made an instinctive save but could not hold onto the ball which fell to Holmes who scored what was to be the games' winning goal.

The Pitmen who were kicking down the hill at Eastwood in the second half pressed for an equaliser, Tyrone Barnett hit a first time volley from a Ross Dyer knock down to send a 30 yard shot which swerved away from the left hand post and with five minutes to go Louie Briscoe should have done better with a shot when with only Goddard to beat he hit his shot against the keeper who conceded a corner in the process.

The corner kick saw the ball flicked on to an unmarked Danny Harvey who sent a weak header straight into the arms of Goddard.