Hawks bidding to extend the worst home record in ‘elite’ English football

The Tudors have only picked up one point from their opening EIGHT home games at Vauxhall Road in 2020/1.

That was a 1-1 draw with Dulwich Hamlet on November 21, while they also lost at home in the FA Cup to league rivals Hampton & Richmond.

Sam Magri and Danny Kedwell (penalty) gave Hawks a 2-1 win when they visited Hemel in January 2020. Since then, the Tudors have only won two out of 15 home league games - the last on March 7 last year.

Hemel’s seventh home league loss of this season came at the weekend when ex-Hawks Jason Prior (2) and Alfie Rutherford gave second-placed Dorking a 3-1 success.

The Tudors trailed 3-0 before Jon Lacey bagged a 74th minute consolation. But they, along with North strugglers Blyth Spartans, remain the only clubs across the three divisions of the National League still without a home success.

Hemel have won five away games, including a 3-2 success at Westleigh Park on December 2. They were the club’s last points, though, as they have suffered four successive South losses since that night.

Hemel were initially due to play Concord Rangers last weekend, but the Essex club postponed it due to the funding crisis. At short notice, Hemel – among the clubs keen to complete the pandemic-scarred campaign - rearranged the home game with Dorking in a bid to return to action for the first time since January 19.

‘It was lovely to be back,’ Tudors boss Lee Bircham said.

‘You forget all the other worries about what’s going to happen with the league when you get out onto the pitch.

‘It’s just an absolute pleasure and privilege to be playing football.

‘My life is all about football and I think people forget at times what a privilege it is to still have the chance to play.

‘We will enjoy it for as long as the season goes on.’

Of the Dorking game, he added: ‘It was a tough game for us to take, we didn’t have to take it but we wanted to play and why not play the best team in the league? That’s what they are.

‘Result aside, the performance was good.

‘It’s the fine details in both boxes and that was our undoing.

‘We switched off twice in the first half with the goals and the chances we had in the first half were incredible, four or five great chances and we walked away not scoring.

‘They are the fine lines. The boys are learning. It’s a very hard balancing act trying to give players opportunities, trying to polish up a few rough diamonds and also trying to get performances as well as results.’

Bircham knows his side are in for another tough game on their 3G pitch tonight against a Hawks side eager to avoid a third successive South defeat.

‘In the last few games we have played the likes of Havant, Hungerford, Oxford and Dorking and these are teams who should be there or thereabouts,’ said Bircham.

‘It’s a tough run of games but you have to play them.

‘But we have already beaten Havant once and we are looking forward to it.

‘It’s another tough game but, in this league, they are all tough games.’