Hednesford Town hopes pinned on star duo

The Pitmen lock horns with the Pics at Dales Lane in a mouthwatering clash that lines up third against fourth.

Both sides underwent changes at the helm during the summer, as chairman John Allen became Rushall chief following the departure of Richard Sneekes, while McDonald was appointed to the helm at Keys Park after last season's disastrous relegation campaign under Frank Sinclair.

Rushall go into the derby on a four-match winning run, while the Pitmen enjoyed a 5-0 rout at Sutton Coldfield Town on Tuesday.

Both sides have lost just twice this term.

"We've got good players and we're excited," said Town boss McDonald. "In Danny Glover and George Carline, we have two of the league's most in-form players. Gloves has five goals in six and George set up three and scored the other night.

"I know what to expect having played with and managed some of Rushall's squad. I'm expecting a good game, we both score lots of goals.

"We're three wins out of three for away derbies (wins at Stourbridge, Halesowen and Sutton Coldfield) and this is another big one.

"They have Reidy (Alex Reid) doing really well.

"We are the joint-top scorers and have conceded the third-lowest in the league. We're looking forward to it."

McDonald will be without left-back Calum Flanagan, one of the players to follow him from Redditch United in the summer, after he picked up a red card in last week's narrow defeat to table-topping Buxton.

"Ask anyone after 20 minutes when we were 1-0 up and there was only one winner," added the boss.

"We've looked at it since and it wasn't a red. Calum will be a miss but we're in good shape otherwise."