Tom Lawless nearly made it a dream start for REMY as he rose highest to meet an excellent set-piece delivery from Will Dunne, but his effort was narrowly over.

Heys had their first opportunity of the game minutes later as the ball fell to winger Akim Simms at the back post, but keeper Jack Reynolds was out quickly to close the angle and smother the shot.

Conditions made it difficult for either side to gain a foothold in the contest, and the next 20 minutes were scrappy until REMY gained an advantage through Brown’s sending off.

Foy did well in the corner to draw the defender into making a lunge, knocking it past him and taking the contact to give Lee O’ Brien’s side an uphill task for the last 60 minutes.

Lawless opened the scoring for REMY soon after with a brilliantly taken acrobatic effort, improvising to make contact with the cross and squeeze it in at the back post with keeper Jordan Hadlow only able to watch as it bounced in off the woodwork.

The visitors made a valiant effort to get back into the game in the second half despite their man disadvantage, with Bradley Sixsmith inches away from levelling the scores as he fired a powerful shot across goal which deflected off the crossbar and over.

Matthew Davies then found himself through one-on-one, but more excellent work from Reynolds allowed him to close the striker down before making a smart save and collecting the ball.

REMY saw out the last 20 minutes with the type of resilience and organisation that has characterised our recent form.

The result puts further room between REMY and the relegation zone, with four points now separating us from the bottom two.

Next up is an away trip to Winsford United on Wednesday night, while Heys travel to Padiham.