The history of Hednesford Town Football Club can be traced way back to 1880 following the amalgamation of two teams, the Red & Whites (aka West Hill) and Hill Top.

From 1880 to 1904 the newly formed club played their games at The Tins, behind Hednesford's Anglesey Hotel until moving to The Cross Keys on the other side of town, which is where they remained until 1994. Home is now the impressive purpose built Keys Park stadium which has a decent 6000 capacity.

Much of the clubs early years were played out in local leagues such as the Birmingham Combination and the Birmingham League. Hednesford Town rarely made much of an impression at a national level, though interestingly they emerged victorious when entertaining Manchester United in a friendly match way back in 1920 and had a record crowd of 10,000 against Walsall in a 5th round qualifier of the FA Cup.

For much of the following seventy years there was never much danger of that feat being repeated but in January 1990, the clubs fortunes took a turn for the better. Up until then the season had been a long hard struggle against relegation from the Beazer Homes (Southern League) Midland Division but former goalkeeper, John Baldwin, was appointed as manager and he gradually began to turn the club around. The following season the team finished third and improved on that in 1992 when the runners-up spot behind Solihull Borough brought promotion to the Premier Division. Hednesford also narrowly lost out 1-0 to Cardiff City in the final of the Welsh Cup that season.

A creditable fourth place in their first season in the Premier Division was followed a year later by an appearance in the Birmingham Senior Cup final, losing to a full strength Walsall side. In 1995 Hednesford were crowned Beazer Homes League Premier Division champions after beating Leek Town in front of 2776 supporters at The Cross Keys. That meant another promotion, this time to the GM Vauxhall Conference and in their debut season the Pitmen finished third behind champions Stevenage Borough and Woking.

Improvements kept on coming and in 1996/97 Hednesford reached the first round of the FA Cup for the first time in 72 years, a run that carried them all the way to the fourth round when they eventually lost to Middlesbrough. They had beaten fellow Conference outfit Southport in the first round to earn an away tie at Blackpool. A goal with only three minutes remaining gave the Pitmen their first ever victory against a Football League team and soon notched their second, this time against York City at Keys Park. On police advice their game against Middlesbrough was switched to The Riverside Stadium and a crowd of 27,500 saw them lose 3-2.

Further FA Cup success came in 1997/98 and 98/99. In 97/98 Hednesford beat Hull City 2-0 at Boothferry Park before losing to Darlington in the second round and the next season reached the Cup's latter stages for the third consecutive year. Another impressive first round showing brought a 3-1 victory over Barnet before their run was again curtailed in the second round, this time by Cardiff City. All of this success couldn't last though and following John Baldwin's resignation in December 1999, the Pitmen suffered relegation for the first time in their history after finishing the season in 17th position. In 2001 a second succesive demotion was narrowly averted via a last day victory away at Newport IOW.

In 2003/04 teams' final placings in the Southern League would determine which sides took up a place as the first members of the all new Conference North, as part of the football pyramid's reorganisation. Hednesford Town failed to make the cut and manager Barry Powell left the club despite also being responsible for the Pitmen's finest moment by leading the club to FA Trophy glory at Villa Park in the very same season. That 3-2 Trophy Final victory over Canvey Island couldn't save him but a year later the decision seemed justified when his replacement, Chris Brindley, took Hednesford up via the play-offs.

The revival wouldn't last, as a disastrous 2005/2006 campaign saw the Pitmen finish bottom of the table and Chris Brindley was fired.

Former Nottingham Forest striker Phil Starbuck took over for 2006/07, as Hednesford Town were moved to the Unibond Premier League and a near complete clearout of the playing staff seemed to have done the trick as the Pitmen challenged near the top of the table for the majority of the season. However, a late slump in form eventually saw them finish in seventh place, four points outside the playoff places. In 2007/08 they finished off the pace in eighth position and Phil Starbuck left the club by mutual consent.

Dean Edwards was appointed as manager prior to the commencement of the 2008/09 campaign and for the first half of the season the Pitmen looked to be Champions elect but a dramatic loss of form just after Christmas saw the side once again finish outside the playoff places. The re-organisation of the Leagues saw Hednesford Town returned to The Southern Football League, now known as The Zamaretto League, for the 2009/10 campaign.

Hednesford Town

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