Hednesford Town through to play-off final
Pitmen will face Warrington Rylands on Bank Holiday Monday
Hednesford Town are one match from promotion after reaching the final of the Northern Premier play-offs.
The ambitious Pitmen, only promoted from step four last season, are now on the brink of a return to step two of the non-league pyramid - a level they last played at in the 2015/16 season.
Montel Gibson and Ollie Harrison scored the goals in front of 3,535 fans at Keys Park to fire them past 10-man Stockton Town and into a Bank Holiday Monday final - again back in Hednesford - against Warrington Rylands.
Ollie Harrison had an early header cleared off the line from Chris Hussey’s cross, before Akheem Rose found the net - only for the strike to be ruled out for offside.
There few further chances until four minutes before the interval when Saints Kitts & Nevis international Omari Sterling-James broke away and was fouled by Arjun Purewal, who was sent off.
And the 10 men of Stockton could not hold out for long as the resultant free-kick from Sterling-James ricocheted around the penalty area before Montel Gibson smashed the loose ball home to give Hednesford the lead.
Rose was on a one-man mission in a bid to double the advantage after half-time as he had a header blocked on the line, before then rattling the crossbar soon after.
The Pitmen finally gave themselves some breathing room in the 73rd minute when George Williams’ header was saved and, from the resultant corner, his centre-half partner Harrison drilled home the hosts’ second.
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