The FA Cup comes round again on Saturday 14th September when Hednesford Town visit Rugby Town in the Second Qualifying Round knowing that they are just three wins away from the First Round Proper.
Hednesford and Rugby go into the game on the back of disappointing league defeats in midweek. While Hednesford were losing 0-1 up in Mossley, Rugby suffered a 1-5 defeat at the hands of Loughborough Students. The results meant that Hednesford slipped to fourth in the Northern Premier League West table with 10 points from six games and Rugby to eighth in the Northern Premier League Midlands with eight points from six games.
In the FA Cup Hednesford have seen off Racing Club Warwick 4-1, Worcester Raiders 1-0 and Melton Town 6-1 while Rugby have beaten Wolverhampton Casuals 3-0, Stone OA 3-0 and Barton Town 1-0. Dom McHale seems to enjoy the FA Cup with three of his five Hednesford Town goals coming in the competition. Trey Charles is Rugby’s leading scorer with five league goals and two in the FA Cup.
The Rugby set-up features several ex-Pitmen including Manager Carl Adams and his assistant Liam Francis, midfielder Chris Clements and Mike McGrath who signed on dual registration from Stratford earlier this week. They have plenty of experience in their squad with Goalkeeper Paul Hathaway the former Coleshill Town Manager, David Kolodynski who is the club’s leading appearance maker and goal scorer now in his fourth spell with the club and veteran striker Mikey Taylor who lists Solihull Moors, Tamworth, Leamington, Stourbridge, Stratford and Bromsgrove among his 14 previous clubs all featuring.
The last time the two clubs met was at the same stage of this competition in 2018/19 when Hednesford won 3-1 at Butlin Road thanks to two goals from Lewis Archer and one from Dan Cockerline, all goals coming in the first half. Hednesford have a good record against the various guises of the Rugby club, in the last 16 meetings The Pitmen have won 11 drawn three and lost just two.
Rugby Town play at Butlin Road, Rugby, Warwickshire CV21 3SD. The ground has a capacity of 6.000 with 2,800 covered and 740 seated. There is cover on all four sides of the ground and plenty of parking. Admission will be £10 adults, £5 OAPs and U18s, £2 U12s with a printed programme available at £2. Kick off is at 3pm and if the games ends in a draw, then there will be a replay at Keys Park on Tuesday 17th September at 7.45pm.
