FOLLOWING THE SALTMEN

UhlSport Hellenic League Premier Division

Saturday 8th November 2025

Attendance: 276

The Saltmen closed the gap on league leaders Roman Glass St George following an impressive win over the Plums of Pershore Town, in the Wychavon derby at Kingys.

Sadly, the game is likely to be remembered for a terrible looking injury to visitors’ centre back Nigel Hinkelow. The big defender fell awkwardly following a collision with one of his teammates in the Pershore penalty area. After getting up to rejoin the action it was clear that Hinkelow was struggling and seconds later he went to ground. Both sides’ medical staff went to his assistance and it appears there were concerns of a potentially serious neck injury. The game was suspended for 45 minutes awaiting the arrival of an ambulance.

I am pleased to say that, while writing this piece, I received a message that Hinkelow had been given the all clear and was eating a McDonalds. Presumably Burger King was closed.

By the time the game was suspended, Spa had crafted a 2-1 lead. The first goal was an authoritative 18th minute Ben Tilbury penalty following a nice interchange of passing between Charlie Tilley and Jack Davies, whose surge of pace took him into the penalty area where he was crudely brought down by a late tackle.

The Plums responded quickly when a smart passage of play put Harper through on goal only to see his effort miss the target. They were soon to rue the missed opportunity. Within 60 seconds, nice interplay between the impressive duo of Perry Moss and Sam Hurdman saw Pez torment the Pershore defence before hitting a low shot towards the far post. Plums keeper Cuneen managed to parry the ball straight into one of his colleagues which ricocheted into the goal.

A frenetic 5 minute period concluded with the visitors pulling a goal back. A strangely static Spa defence allowed Day to pick up the ball in the Spa box and his no-doubter gave Dom Rogerson no chance.

After the lengthy injury break the game re-started with the Saltmen taking charge. Lemon, Moss and Davies almost increased the Droitwich advantage until Lemon found himself through on goal after a flowing move. The Spa skipper needed no second invitation and his clinical finish sent the Saltmen into the half time break with a 3-1 advantage.

The early stages of the second half saw both sides cancelling each others efforts out, with the exception of a cracking distance effort from the Plums which nearly lifted the river end goal into the river (after which it is not named).

Half chances came and went for both sides before Spa made all three points safe. Returning Saltman Haydn Morris switched from being goal scorer last week to goal creator this week. His pinpoint low cross across the Pershore box looked destined for a meeting with James Lemon’s right boot. However, Lem must have received a call from Josh Hurdman, returning to the squad after a lengthy injury. Captain Lem, cleverly stepped over the ball which was met cleanly by Josh whose shot from the edge of the box showed Salt National what they had been missing.

The visitors never took their foot off the pedal and had a couple of excellent chances to reduce the deficit but just could not find the final finish to pressurise Spa late on.

After two or three lacklustre performances, this game saw Spa return to something closer to the standard they are capable of. Front to back, without exception, they were excellent. As were the contributions from the substitutes. But, the FTS Man of the Match goes to Sam Hurdman. After missing so much football over the last couple of years, while recovering from a potentially career ending injury, the eldest of the three brothers showed creativity going forward while doing his share of the hard yards without the ball. Really good to see.

Something else which was good to see was the presence of a club shop within the ground. Should be good source of inspiration for Christmas pressies for the Salt men and women in your life!

FTS would like to send best wishes for a speedy recovery to Mr Hinkelow. Hopefully, he will be back playing very soon.

Next up, on Tuesday evening we will see Worcester Raiders visit Kingys in the County Cup.

See you there.

Cheers

FTS