Watkins Saves Wilkinson From the Sword
(Hednesford Revisited…)
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| Welcome... |
Hednesford Town, the Pitmen, were reeling after a promising opening to the 2008-09 season and then failing to win promotion from the Unibond Premier League, but they were now playing in the southern equivalent, the Zamaretto Premier League. The characteristic Unibond flags and several players too had gone and when I walked into the stadium, Keys Park, for an August Bank Holiday Saturday game against their most distant visitors, Truro City, there was an air of picking up the pieces in an almost hauntingly empty ground. Keys Park is impressive, built for a higher standard of football, replacing the original home from the days of mining and smoke and dirt and black and white photography. Indeed, the stadium is predominantly black and white, as are the team’s colours, of course, almost a reminder of the long forgotten mining communities.
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| Looked smart... |
At around 2pm, only four people sat in the grandstand: the Truro Four, but not in the back row this time because the view was so much better than the norm from just in front of the officials’ section, where the pallid Truro Chairman would watch in some discomfort as the match ran its rather topsy-turvy course.
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| Fine. In the warm-up... |
The tannoy announcer made several mistakes during his first few sentences, revealing that he was “…all mixed up today…”,with a heavy Black (and White?) Country accent. Bob, from St Austell, asked me to translate. Cheeky bugger. When Walsall used to play at Fellows Park, in another age, not only were the male toilets like pit shafts and open to the elements, making urinating a tough prospect on a frosty evening, the tannoy announcer suffered the Black Country accent affliction too. When the opposition was Stockport, Bury or Hartlepool, it was actually worth going anyway, just to hear the chap announce the Saddlers’ centre-forward’s name and number: “Numba noyn, Jimmoy Murroy…” Priceless. On this occasion, it was: “Noyn, Toyro-an Barnitt.” Also priceless.
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| Hednesford: simply black and white... |
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| Danny Clay, left, spots a shin... |
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| Some handshake. The ref dances in pain... |
I sat behind the four just persons and next to an ex-Hednesford player and his friend, from the days of hooped socks, cane-filled shin-pads and shirts which slowed players down after a rain shower, due to the thickness of the material. The pair showed considerable anguish when the official decided not to award two second-half penalties to the Pitmen, they witnessed Truro’s defenders floundering like miners without lamps during a first-half in which Barry McConnell performed like a flailing pit-prop and goalie Wilkinson flapped like a miner scrabbling with desperate hands for coal at the face. The Gaia-Ash defensive partnership continued to suffer teething problems but both were playing injured after the break, as well as Afful and with only Clay seemingly keeping his head and the coaching staff allowing Hednesford’s Dinning to run the show from midfield, without addressing the problem, things looked more black than white…
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| "We're gonna win 3-2..." |
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| Nearly... |
And White stayed on the bench for the visitors but saviour Watkins, a good Welsh mining name, popped up like a rich vein of fossil fuel to wrestle the points away. Relief for the pale features of the Chairman, relief too for Bob’s companion Gill, who had forecast a 4-2 defeat and it only remained for the announcer to inform us all of the official attendance: “Three ‘undred and fiftoy noyn…”
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| Ooooh... |
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| Les Afful has scored... The 'keeper looks unimpressed... |
Priceless.
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| Danny Clay: another evil performance... (I meant 'effective'...) |
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