Blustering Heddon See Off Hearts In The Wind
On a Momentous day that saw Scotty Flynn return to Heddon fit and well in a director of football role until he can play, Dan Walker produced a lone front man performance of absolute quality scoring in his 10th start in a row, Alex Burnie continued his rich vein of goal scoring form (for him anyway) whilst Dan Ramshaw's best contribution in a usually Solid performance was to win the toss and go against the wind for the first half.
With Phil Edmondson and Rich Adams taking managerial responsibilities for the day from Greeny a management duo Ala Roy Evans and Gerard Houliller (or maybe more Morcambe and Wise) set a team out that started with Scoobs in goal and Burnie pushing back into centre half in the absence of Wad(d)sy.
With a few lads looking decidedly worse for wear, (not naming names but it wasn’t the Klique for once!), Heddon started slowly in tough conditions underfoot and with the wind to surrender the lead to a well worked Hexham goal. Whilst the defending could have been better conditions definitely played a significant part in the goal. Despite the poor start Heddon still had numerous chances that were squandered (as per!) with a chance cleared off the line and Murta rounding the keeper before a last ditch tackle from the Hearts defender stopping Murta from scoring.
Getting a stronger foothold in the game, as hangovers wore off big Davy G began shouting after somehow being quiet for 30 minutes ( a record!), Heddon finally equalised when Shaun floated a cracking corner in for Burnie who rose like a Salmon to head in a Heddon equaliser. Burnie, now accustomed to celebrating goals after at least a ten year drought, managed to not look shocked when the ball hit the back of the net!
Following half time and with conditions worsening but in our favour Heddon looked the stronger of the teams with Dan Walker curling in a corner directly to make it two one ( or was his free kick first I can’t remember!). Notably Mr Walker never usually takes corners until he fancied trying to score from one with the wind in his favour, some say it was a coincidence but I’m not so sure.
His second goal however had no fortune about it, with a delicious free kick that was in the moment it left his foot and nestled into the top corner. Zarate obvious seen this free kick as he copied it in the premier league later that day. Dan's third and Heddon fourth came when the keeper miss judged (a clearance?) cross and knocked the ball (over?) on the line for Dan to knock in. But that didn’t come before Heddon conceded a second and nearly lost a two goal lead when Hearts hit the post.
With the game now effectively over Frank the tank missed an absolute sitter whilst Richie had a decent shot saved before Richie burst down the wing and gist wrapped Dan's fourth and Heddon's fifth to cap off a cracking perfomance fro the lone striker.
The win makes it 7 wins from 7 and sitting 4 points clear at the top of the table with a game in hand! We have scored the most and conceeded the least in the league, we need to keep up this momentum next week agaisnt another solid team in Hayden Bridge.
A tough game overall against opponents we have in the cup in two weeks but in trying conditions that meant we couldn’t play football to our usual level, it was a job very well done and shows that with our strong team work and work ethic that we can match it up well even when behind or the conditions don't favour our usual game.
