Match Report By Martin Baxter
Yarmouth made their first away trip of the new season across to the other side of Norfolk to face newly promoted Heacham FC on a very hot and breezy summers day.
Before the game I spoke to Yarmouth joint manager Dan Nolan who told me ” I am very impressed with the set up they have here at Heacham and they are a club on a real high after winning 6 consecutive promotions and are flying and this will be a very tough challenge and we will need to be more clinical in front of goal today than we were last week, and if we manage to do that hopefully we will travel home with the 3 points.”
I then spoke to Heacham’s club Secretary Darren Bailey who said “ We felt we were really unlucky to not get anything out of the Framlingham game last week, who are one of the sides tipped for promotion in this league and we will be determined today to try and get our first win on the board for our club at this level”
Yarmouth made 3 changes from last week’s opening day draw with Holland FC, with Jacobs, Willetts and Beeson coming in for Duffield, Lonergan and Sanders.
Heacham started the brighter of the two sides and were asking all the questions and their first chance fell to Davies whose tame effort was comfortably saved by Lane in the Yarmouth goal and once again another effort on 14 minutes from Flanagan was once again dealt with by Lane. The battle in midfield was becoming feisty with tackles flying in and from one of these challenges Yarmouth won a free kick on the edge of the area in the 17th minute which was taken by Cantwell but went straight to the keeper. In the 23rd minute the game got its first goal when Heacham’s centre forward Davis sent over a cross from the right flank which swerved in the windy conditions to wrong foot the visitor’s keeper and then rebound in off the bar for a rather fortuitous opener.Heacham almost doubled their lead 2 minutes later when a mix up in the Bloaters defence earned the home side a corner and from the corner that man Davis once again headed just over the bar and 10 minutes later, they came even closer to doubling their advantage with a header from Flanagan that this time rattled the cross bar.
On 35 minutes there was a blow for the home side as their keeper Watson had to go off with a leg injury and their winger Ben Dear put on the gloves and went between the sticks and Heacham then made a substitution and re-shuffled their formation.
With an outfield player now in goal for Heacham it was expected that Yarmouth would take advantage of the situation and get back into the match.
However, all they managed to create was another free kick which came to nothing.
Heacham were still controlling this match and in the last 5 minutes of the first half they had two more guilt edged opportunities, however they were firstly foiled by a decent save from Lane following a corner and then right on half-time Mitchell put an effort sailing over the bar from point blank range.
Half time: Heacham 1 Great Yarmouth Town 0.
The 2nd half started in perfect fashion for the Magpies when in the 47th minute slack defending allowed man of the match Davis to ghost in and slot home to give the home side that vital 2 goal cushion, which they totally deserved on the balance of play. On 65 minutes it was effectively game over when Yarmouth keeper Lane stated rooted on his goal line to allow Davis to clip the ball past him and complete his hat trick. From this point onwards Heacham looked to be happy with what they had and were looking at seeing the game out for the 3 points.
Yarmouth then made a couple of changes bringing on Sanders and Lonergan and this seemed to freshen things up in the final third of the pitch and in the 70th minute Beeson turned his marker and struck a great effort which crashed against the cross bar.
10 minutes later Yarmouth pulled a consolation goal back with almost a carbon copy of Heachams opener, when Couzens sailed over a cross that once again got caught in the cross wind to beat the Heacham keeper and nestle into the top right corner of the net to make it 3-1. In the 89th minute substitute Lonergan then had a decent chance to make it an interesting finish when his surging run at goal ended with him trying to square the ball to a teammate when shooting at the makeshift keeper seemed to be the better option and the opportunity was cut out by a Heacham defender.
Full time: Heacham FC 3 Great Yarmouth Town FC 1. Attendance: 141.
Great Yarmouth Line up: Lane, Halliday, Jacobs, Vincent, Edwards, Soares, Willetts, Cantwell, McQueen, Beeson, Couzens. Subs: Adams, Lonergan, Sanders, Melo.
Man of the match: Nathan Davies. (Heacham)
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