Midlands Football League new boys Hanley Town continued their impressive pre-season with a 2-0 win over Northern Premier League West team Market Drayton Town.
Two quickfire goals in the first half won the game for Hanley, who in truth, could have had more goals if they wanted to on a mild day in Shropshire.
After Chris Dagnall and Joe Green volleyed chances over the crossbar, the deadlock was broken on 30 minutes when Kyle Stubbs sprayed an excellent ball across the pitch to Ryan Campbell-Gordon. The former Port Vale youngster got down the wing before crossing the ball into the box for former Crewe Alexandra striker Dagnall to slot home.
Hanley got their second goal just two minutes later when some neat build-up play around the area saw Dagnall turn provider for Eric Graves to smash the ball past Ash Rawlins in the Market Drayton goal.
That was the end of the scoring. However, Hanley did have chances in the second half through player-manager Carl Dickinson and Tim Sanders, while Dagnall had two efforts scrambled off the line as they looked for a third goal.
The result continues Hanley’s impressive pre-season, where they’ve won all five games and only conceded once in those games. Their final friendly is next Saturday when they visit Graham St Prims, the season gets underway a week later with an Emirates FA Cup tie at Lye Town FC.
After the game, I caught up with Hanley Town player-manager Carl Dickinson to get his thoughts on the game and to see how pre-season has been going.
I also spoke with goalscorer Eric Graves as he discussed his goal.
