Hednesford Town 3 Gateshead 2

Two first-half goals put the Pitmen on the way to the three points but it needed a number of acrobatic saves from Paul Evans and a fantastic strike from Ross Dyer to finally secure the victory.

Evans, who was only playing because of Ben Scott’s three-match suspension and his other club Causeway United not having a fixture, produced a performance that rightly earned him the man of the match award.

Evans was called into action as early as the fourth minute when he had to dive to his left to tip Graeme Armstrong’s 20-yard shot away for a corner kick.

Mario Pedro scored the opening goal in the 22nd minute when he intercepted a headed back pass by Kris Gate to nip in and stab the ball home.

Wayne Dyer extended the Pitmen’s lead six minutes later when a long clearance from Paul Evans was taken on by Ross Dyer.

Dyer played a finely weighted pass into the penalty box for Wayne Dyer to make a well timed run and hit a shot past Paul Musselwhite from 10 yards. 

Gateshead pulled a goal back in the 65th minute after a long spell of pressure. Centre forward Graeme Armstrong played a good pass for Wayne Phillips to hit a left footed shot past Evans.

Evans denied Phillips another goal minutes later when he chested away a firm shot from the right. Steven Bowey was shown a yellow card for a poor tackle on Ross Dyer in the 71st minute.

From the resulting free-kick Ross Adams sent in a ball which Ross Dyer took on his chest and in an instant he turned and hit an unstoppable left footed shot into the back of the net.

In the 79th minute Evans made a save which took the breath away as he somehow managed to push away Bowey’s close range header.

Phil Cave scored from the penalty spot in the 86th minute after Liam McDonald was ruled to have fouled Armstrong.