Pitmen bury the Robins

Report by David Robinson

Visitors Hednesford inflicted a second home defeat of the week on Ashton with a deserved win at Hurst Cross. With goalkeeper Ashley Frith injured in the warm up, the hosts handed a competitive debut to Max Povey and he was in the action in the first two minutes with a decent stop from James Lawrie who had been set up by Edjidja Mbunga following a poor clearance from Josh Granite.

The Robins had already gone close almost from the kick off as Matty Chadwick beat his full back and saw his cross squeezed out to Danny Pilkington who hit the outside of the post from a narrow angle. Pilkington’s cross was then touched away by Wren with Chadwick finding the angle too tight but on twelve minutes a misplaced pass by Aaron Chalmers saw Danny Glover blocked out but the ball broke to Lawrie to open the scoring for the Pitmen. Lawrie’s low effort was then pushed away by Povey with Glover’s follow up being saved at the second attempt and Reece King’s header then came back to him before Povey gathered safely.

Approaching the interval Mbunga showed his strength and teed up Lawrie who missed the far post and Ashton’s best move for some time then saw Chadwick release Mark Lees whose cross was sidefooted wide first time by Liam Tomsett. After the break Thorley’s fine pass released Mbunga with Povey out to the rescue and Alex Johnson turned on a pass at the other end and brought a flying save out of Wren. A good run across midfield by sub Fitzpatrick then saw Melbourne’s cross glanced wide of the far post by Lawrie but with a quarter of an hour left Sam Oji appeared to be caught by Lanre Olapede with James Mutton forcing a tip over out of Povey from the loose ball and when Tom Thorley’s corner arrived, Oji was on hand to head it over the line.
Right on full time Thorley’s burst through midfield was only halted by a last ditch tackle from Chalmers who injured himself in the process and Ashton just had time for a consolation as Chadwick’s corner was touched home at the far post by Liam Tomsett.
Team: Povey, Olapede (Banim 83), Smalley, Granite, Chalmers (Woodford 90), Platt, Lees, Tomsett, Johnson, Pilkington (Durnin 37), Chadwick. SNU: Roberts.
David Robinson