Hednesford’s players have been challenged to prove themselves on a bigger stage when they take on Wolves on Tuesday.
Mick McCarthy’s side are the visitors to Keys Park on Tuesday for a Birmingham Senior Cup clash (7.45pm).
The Pitmen are set to hand a trial to a mystery left-back from a League club while Willenhall target Steve Palmer – the son of former Wolves full-back Geoff – has been pencilled in to make his comeback following a broken bone in his foot.
Assistant boss Mark Patterson believes the tie will provide his players with an opportunity to test themselves.
“It will be a nice game and one to look forward to and we’re hoping there will be a few people watching,” said Patterson.
“It’s a chance for players to impress. I’m not sure what their team will be, but I’m sure there will be one or two familiar faces getting match fitness.
“From our point of view, it might be a great opportunity for us to have a good look at Steve Palmer.
“We’re also hoping to have at least one trialist from a professional club. He’s trained with us for the last three or four sessions and hopefully he will be available.
“We’re still looking to strengthen the left-back position.”
Meanwhile Hednesford want to strengthen their squad with the addition of a target man after missing out on Neil Ross.
Boss Phil Starbuck had spoken to Ross a few weeks ago, but has learned the attacker has now joined Buxton instead for a package the Pitmen couldn’t afford.
“It’s no secret we’re looking for a big lad up front and we’re keeping tabs on players,” said Patterson.
“We missed out on Neil. We talked to him a few weeks ago and at the time he said he was happy at Ilkeston, but then he was offered an exceptional deal to go to Buxton.
“It was the sort of deal we couldn’t compete with at this time.”
But the management staff must be reasonably pleased with their strikers after allowing recent acquisition Lindon Dovey to rejoin Shifnal on loan.
“Lindon’s gone back just to get games,” added Patterson.
“We’ve got Chris Hanna on loan from Walsall who is doing well, and the effort and pace he and Ross Dyer are showing in are causing defences all sorts of problems.
“It’s no detriment to them that we’re looking for a target man – we just want another dimension.
“We’ve got good pace down the flanks and up front and we’ve got two lads in midfield who can play and ‘dig’.
“But a big centre forward would allow us to get the ball uo to him, hold it up and enable midfielders to getin behind him.”
Patterson is convinced Hednesford aren’t far away now from being a play-off chasing team after last week’s 3-1 win at Kendal.
“We’re absolutely certain we can do it,” he said. “We have a good enough squad to push on up the league – we just need to stay injury-free and go on a run to get us up there.
“The Kendal game was all about battling and scrapping and we applied ourselves in the right manner.”
Hednesford have been drawn away to Ilkeston in the Unibond league cup fourth round. The tie has to be played before January 5.
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