Saturday 5th September 2015 West Lancashire League Premier Division

THORNTON CLEVELEYS 3
HESKETH BANK 1

Team: Henry Heighton, Kevin Cox, Tony Sergeant, James Green, Radoslav Ivanov, Jamie Johnson (Adam Goldarb 73), Bob Milton (Josh Roberts 59), Josh Brierley, Lewis Saunders (David Hogg 73), John Stead, Daniel Birkby.

Hesketh Bank were missing Richard Burns and Ian Dickinson both playing cricket. Henry Heighton made his 60th start for the club replacing Stuart Singleton in goal who was away on holiday. Kevin Cox returned to the side as did Adam Goldfarb and Bob Milton with the latter starting midfield while Goldfarb only made the bench.

It was a fine afternoon with a westerly wind that gave the advantage to the team kicking towards the Thornton estate end and in the first half this was Hesketh Bank. A nice pitch provided the opportunity to play the passing game. A cross from Radoslav Ivanov was headed against the outside of the post by John Stead with the Cleveleys keeper well beaten. Heighton wasn't too busy at the other end as Thornton failed to make chances that were too spectacular that could lead to an opener. The Hesketh Bank stopper made his first save of the game going to save a low effort from Alan Stubbs just after the half hour mark but both teams failed to create a goal scoring chance and went into the break at 0-0.

With no changes from either side the second half kicked off the way the first one had ended with Hesketh Bank mainly in possession and should have taken the lead as Brierley had played in the skipper Birkby who's effort came off the bar from 6 yards out. Thornton then took the lead as Johnson lost the ball after a pass from Sergeant 30 yards out and Stubbs hit a low effort in the direction of Heighton's goal. The ball hit a divot and bounced over the goalkeepers hand and into the net to give Thornton the lead with 20 minutes to go. Not often you see a ball hitting a divot and going in and especially a mistake by Heighton which is also very rare. Goldfarb and Hogg then replaced Johnson and Saunders while Birkby was being denied by the legs of the goalkeeper which resulted in a corner with 16 minutes left Hogg headed in with his first touch from 3 yards out as an Adam Goldfarb corner was not dealt with. Henry Heighton then redeemed himself with a smart free kick save after Tony Sergeant was adjudged to have fouled Joe Durham 25 yards away from goal. Heighton was then helpless as Durham smashed the ball past him from the exact same distance in the 91st minute after what looked like a high foot by Durham on Sergeant just seconds before the goal. Joel Khamby added a third for Thornton after being left unmarked by the Hesketh defence heading past Heighton who was annoyed with the slack defending and rightly so.

On Saturday 12th September the West Lancashire League is largely at a standstill as the clubs compete in the opening round of the Lancashire Amateur Shield. Hesketh Bank visit Wyre Villa from Fylde coast who compete in Division One. Note that this game kicks off at 2.00pm.

Hesketh Bank AFC

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