Pitmen ready for festive games

Hednesford managing director Terry Brumpton is confident that a lack of match practice won't count against the team during the forthcoming busy period.

The Pitmen last played on December 1 when they drew 0-0 at Ilkeston and could be set for a fixture backlog, which will only increase should today's match have also been a victim of the weather.

"We've not played since Ilkeston and because Scarborough dropped out of the league at the start of the season, we had no game scheduled the week after," Brumpton said.

"Last week our match with Whitby was frozen off because they wanted a decision on Friday due to the travelling distance and the pitch was unplayable at the time, so we called that one off.

"The lads are training regularly though and it's obviously not ideal that they've had two or three weeks out, but they'll be ready."

Manager Phil Starbuck added: "The lads have been working really hard in training this week, because we've taken our lack of recent games into consideration."

The Pitmen have four games in ten days over the festive period, but Brumpton doesn't believe that will be a problem for the players. "Christmas is always a busy period," he said. "We've been really affected by injuries this season, but at least the lack of matches has given some of the injured lads a bit of time to recover."

Brumpton also confirmed that Ross Dyer has signed a new two-year-contract.

"He's come right through the ranks at the club and we're delighted about that. He's been with us since the under eights and now he's our top scorer this season."

The 19-year-old striker has 11 goals from 21 starts so far this campaign after establishing himself in the side under Starbuck, who said: "It's really good news for the club that Ross has signed. "We're really happy that he's committed himself. We're trying to get our best players signed up on long term deals.

"Tom Marshall has signed, Paul Robinson has just signed an 18 month deal as well and I've committed myself to the club too.

"There have been clubs sniffing around our players and I don't want to lose them.

"We're trying to get some stability here."

Starbuck revealed that he has made a seven-day approach for Lincoln United centre-half Ben Brown, due to an injury to Tom Marshall that could keep Marshall out for a couple of months.

The Whitby Town match has been rescheduled for March 31 at 7.45 p.m.