Heanor Town 5-1 Graham Street Prims

Saturday 4th September had been designated as "non-league football day" and we picked a cracking game to go and watch. This was our first East Midlands Counties League game of the season, although we had seen Heanor recently when they played at Borrowash in the F.A. Cup.

Prims play at Borrowash, next door to Victoria, but the club name is derived from their early days in 1904 when they were a primitive Methodist Church, and from Graham Street which is actually off Osmaston Road near the old Baseball Ground.....

Shake

Heanor went into this game unbeaten in four, with a goal difference of +13, while their visitors had won two out of the five games they have played so far, and were on a goal difference of -1. The game didn't start off too badly for Prims, and they tested Town keeper Mark Frost early on. They were guilty a lapse in defense in the 6th minute that handed Heanor the lead - centre-half George Walker heading down to the unmarked GRAHAM WELLS who rifled the ball home from about 10 yards.

From then on it was Prims who were asking most of the questions, and Heanor had to thank Frost on three occasions as he thwarted the Prims strikers. Heanor front man Dan Williams should have made it 2-0 to the hosts on 23, but his header from a corner flew well over.

Williams fails to get direction on his header

Dave Kinder in the Prims goal did well to keep out Gary Webster in the 33rd minute, diving well at the Heanor skippers feet to block. Heanor did manage another goal before the break - this time a long ball into the area was met at the far post by WELLS who saw his header loop over Kinder and nestle in the back of the net. Frost was forced into one more block just before the break, on this occasion saving Walkers blushes after he had given the ball away to Tom Widdison.. H-T 2-0


Wells (out of shot) heads at goal, and Kinder watches as the ball (out of shot) flies over him

Had a wander around the pitch at half time and persuaded Kev " David Bailey" Goodman to get me an "arty-farty" shot of the birds chattering away on one of the pylons......although when I asked him to "take a pic of those birds" he wandered off mentioning something about the one with a white hand-bag for some reason!!

Noisy sods!!

Heanor were soon celebrating their third goal of the afternoon, when in the 50th minute Walker made a strong, powerful run throught the Prims defence ending up in the box before calmly picking out WELLS who crashed the ball home from 12 yards. On 53, Frost had to make a superb finger-tip save after the Prims tried to get back into the game.

The visitors then brought on Charlie Bangura who teased Heanor left back Richard Hodgman before finding CHRIS BRIGGS in the area. - the no.8 fired past Frost with the help of a slight deflection. Frost did well to block again on the hour mark, but Heanor by this time had replaced a couple of players and were looking a little fresher than their opponents. Town added their fourth after 79 minutes, JAMES WHITEHEAD converting from the spot after a handball decision that seemed a tad dubious. A shot from Josh Wain hit the Prims centre-half on the arm and not only was this deemed a handball, the player was given a straight red as well. Very harsh.

 

Penalty? Apparently.....

Right on full-time, Heanor added a fifth and this was again a looping header that evaded keeper Kinder - JAMES WHITEHEAD as surprised as anyone when the ball actually crossed the line!! 5-1 looks emphatic, but Prims made a good game of it and I think they were slighly unfortunate with the looping headers and the penalty award. F-T 5-1

Whiteheads looping header evades Kinder

Last time we visited the Town Ground, we Christened a friend from our Eastwood Town days as " the tall-lad" - and he was present at this game as well. We found out at a later game that his name was Chris - and he staggered both Kev and myself by handing over £3.00 for the APTCOO charity -- £0.50 for each goal scored. What a fantastic gesture and if you look at the picture below, you will see " the tall lad" -- can you guess which one he is????

Bless you, Chris..

Graham Wells - netted a hat-trick

James Whitehead bagged a brace

Admission £5

Raffle £0.10 per ticket

Programme £1

Attendance 82 -- slightly surprising -- we counted a few more - and street parking was a nightmare. As always happens when I'm driving - no parking spaces!

Monday -- Arnold Town U19 v Matlock Town U19 at the Eagle Valley