Hednesford Town 4-2 Boston United

The Pilgrims suffered a 4-2 defeat, with Marvin Robinson, Paul McCone, Neil Harvey and Nathan Blissett on target for the hosts who climbed back above United in the process.

Miller struck at 2-0 and 4-1, but his goals never looked like rescuing anything for a United side missing seven regulars ahead of kick-off and fielding several new faces.

Ryan Semple was a casualty ahead of kick-off due to sickness, with two players already suspended and four sidelined through injury.

It meant starts for untried left-back Daniel Pritchard and Gambian striker Pasulay Njie, while Sunderland loanee Liam Agnew started too.

The opening exchanges were scrappy and Hednesford took the lead with their first meaningful attack. United successfully cleared a corner, but John Disney's eventual return cross was headed into the far corner by ROBINSON, who rose above Stefan Galinski to give Lewis King no chance.

The lead was doubled on 28 minutes, with McCONE meeting Elliott Durrell's corner with a firm back post header.

United halved the deficit four minutes later when Agnew clipped a delightful throughball into the path of MILLER, who turned away from Disney before finishing expertly.

The Pilgrims' hopes of getting a foothold in the game were extinguished in the same minute when Blissett forced the ball across for HARVEY to slam home from close-range despite a strong hint of handball in the build-up.

King then made a brave save with his face to deny Blissett, who had shrugged off Galinski's attentions to race through.

With the returning James Reed replacing injured skipper Ian Ross at half-time, United hoped to keep things tight, but conceded again within 70 seconds of the restart.

Pritchard was caught out of position following Jamey Osborne's partially-cleared long throw and Tom Thorley slipped BLISSETT in to beat King with aplomb.

Njie, who had endured a complete nightmare, was withdrawn in favour of fellow debutant Brad Gascoigne and United instantly looked better.

They reduced the arrears on 64 minutes when MILLER beat Dan Crane with an angled drive following a slide-rule Carl Piergianni throughball, but a grandstand finish never materialised.

Reed was denied by a decent Crane save, while Robbie Thompson-Brown and Durrell both fired efforts off target as the match meandered towards a comfortable home win.

Hednesford (4-4-2): Dan Crane; John Disney, Francino Francis (Ben Bailey 69), Paul McCone, Darren Campion; Robbie Thompson-Brown, Jamey Osborne (Kris Taylor 55), Tom Thorley, Elliott Durrell; Marvin Robinson (Neil Harvey 22), Nathan Blissett. Subs (not used): Nathan Woolfe, Dave Macpherson.

Boston (4-3-3): Lewis King; Conor Marshall (Ngoni Dongo 81), Stefan Galinski, Carl Piergianni, Daniel Pritchard; Ben Milnes, Ian Ross (James Reed 46), Liam Agnew; Marc Newsham, Pasulay Njie (Brad Gascoigne 54), Ricky Miller. Subs (not used): Charlie Ward, Sam Vince (gk).

Referee: Matthew Bristow

Attendance: 650

PIC: Eric Brown