Hednesford Town 8 Clitheroe 1

Clitheroe inexplicably crumbled in dramatic fashion away at resurgent Hednesford and suffered the club’s largest post war defeat. Hednesford had already reached the FA Cup 1st round this season and with facilities to match many league clubs, they were many people’s pre season favourites. Their side was buoyed by a change of manager but that could not excuse a supine performance. Clitheroe appeared to have drawn the sting from the home side’s inevitable early pressure, with Hakan Burton parrying a fierce shot after 4 minutes. Jacob Hanson was first to show for Clitheroe overlapping down the right and the small band of travelling fans looked forward to a night of good counter attacking football. The tenor of the game changed on 16 minutes when Dylan Dwyer was inexplicably penalised for a foul on the corner of the box. That said, the wicked free kick dipping over the wall would have graced far finer stages. Louis Potts was put through by Hughes on 26 minutes and his instant shot was well saved by the keeper who raced out. Potts had another shot as he turned on the edge of the box minutes later, but almost immediately a lightning burst down the Hednesford left saw a fierce low cross easily turned in inside the six yard box. Things got worse minutes later when on the other flank, the home winger hurtled down the wing to the bye line, strolled along the bye line and then thundered his shot home. Another chance for the home side whistled across the face of goal when the goal was begging.
Anyone expecting a reaction from Clitheroe was soon disappointed as the visitors subsided and totally lost their shape. Within fifteen minutes of the restart, the scoreline had doubled. The first shot was an expert finish by a rampaging centre forward who took a bouncing ball over his shoulder at pace and lashed it home. Burton then blocked a sharp shot and luckless Sam Olawumi sliced the bouncing ball into his own net as he looked to clear. Burton then made a finger tip save before minutes later a burst down the right saw a deep cross find an unmarked player in the Clitheroe box and his volleyed finish was outstanding. On 70 minutes Olawumi had Clitheroe’s only chance of the half as his burst forced a top drawer save. However, two further late goals compounded the misery before a scrappy own goal gave the superb small band of travelling fans a minor reward for their singing throughout the second half. This was an historically bad performance. How the side reacts will be very telling.
TEAM: 1 Hakan Burton (C), 2 Jacob Hanson, 3 Dylan Dwyer, 4 Sam Olawumi, 5 Mark Hughes, 6 Charlie Hayes-Green, 7 Emerich Poilly, 8 Connor High, 9 Sefton Gonzales, 10 Louis Potts, 11 Ross Dent. SUBS USED: 14 Jake Connelly, 16 Javaun Splatt, 17 Luke Gill. Not Used: 12 Sean McConville, 15 Veron Parny.