Hinckley AFC’s first of two games in three days sees the second attempt this month at a visit to Easington Sports on Saturday.
Three weeks after the initial fixture was postponed because of a frozen pitch, we’ll try again for a visit to Addison Road in the hope of recording a first win of 2026.
But despite defeat to Nuneaton Town last weekend, there was relative optimism at the Hinckley performance and now the hope is that those displays can start to bring goals and points heading into the final couple of months of the season.
Hinckley will head to Oxfordshire without Luke Jones, who picked up a fracture to his tibia last week, while Reece Massey is struggling with the knee issue that forced him off last week. But Lucinee Donzo could return to the group and Drew Kear may also come back in providing there are no delays on his flight back from Australia.
The opposition
Hinckley won the reverse fixture 8-2 back in September but Easington are a different proposition since then, and have clawed their way well clear of the relegation zone.
While most of their points have come away, five of their six wins have been on the road, their only home victory came through a stunning takedown of Nuneaton in October, when they beat the leaders 3-0.
They have 23 points from their 26 games, 10 clear of the bottom two, but went down 4-3 to Lutterworth Town in a seven-goal thriller last week. Prior to that, they hadn’t conceded more than two in a game since October.
That was only their second game of 2026 – in their first, they won 3-1 away to Yaxley as leading scorers Josh Yeboah and Sam Lawrence both found the net, but 13-goal Yeboah has since signed for Daventry Town leaving Lawrence, on 10, as their leading marksman for the season.
From the dressing room
“The Easington home game is a reminder for us of how it can all click in front of goal. It was a bit of a freak game, everything we touched went in on that day, but Easington are a different kettle of fish now. They’ve done similar to us in that they’ve stopped conceding as many, and having beaten Nuneaton at their place, that’s a sure sign to not get complacent.
“Every game in this league is tough. With the group we’ve got we can score goals if it starts to drop for us but we’ve got to continue to work hard to earn that.”
Chris Tullin
Key information
There will be a morning pitch inspection following heavy rain this week – we will inform supporters of the outcome once we are told.
Easington play in red and white, so Hinckley will be in our purple away kit for this fixture.
Adults: £6
Concessions: £4
Under 16s: Free
