Hednesford Town 2, Redditch Utd 1

Redditch bowed out of the Birmingham Senior Cup as former boss Liam McDonald saw his Hednesford side through by the slenderest of margins.

The home side, with four former United players in their starting line-up, dominated the opening period with Reds keeper Brad Catlow twice keeping his side in contention as he blocked back-to-back Joel Logan efforts.

But with little support from his defence, Catlow was unable to stop Hednesford from taking a 21st minute lead when a cross from Jamie Matthews picked out George Carline and the former Red blasted home from 15 yards.

United’s only chance of the half came ten minutes before the break when Jordan Cullinane-Liburd’s free-kick found skipper Clayton McDonald but his 12-yard header flew wide.

Manager Darren Byfield sent on substitutes Jordan Jones and Danico Johnson at the start of the second half – Liam Spink had joined the fray a minute before the break – and the injection of pace gave the visitors an instant lift.

Within 30 seconds they were back on level terms. Luke Shearer was flung to the floor and McDonald powered in the resulting penalty.

But that was as good as it got for United and the Pitmen regained the lead on 55 minutes when the impressive Logan drilled a cross in from the right for Matthews to head home.

Redditch huffed and puffed in search of a way back into the game but rarely threatened Lloyd Ransome in the home goal until injury time when Shearer looked to be through only to be hauled down by Williams just outside the box. The Hednesford player escaped without a ticking off and the subsequent free-kick came to nothing.

Reds: Catlow 7. Young 5, Brown 6, Washbourne 5 (Jones 46, 6), McDONALD 8, Cullinane-Liburd 6, Bako 5, McDermott 5 (Spink 46, 5), Shearer 7, Taylor 6, Thompson 6 (Johnson 46, 6). Subs (not used): Roberts, Loveridge.