MATCH ABANDONED

After 58 minutes of this contest, Heaton Stannington’s Lee Johnson sustained a serious back injury after landing awkwardly in a freak accident after challenging for a high ball. This incident marked the end of the contest as, such was the severity of the pain Lee was in, an ambulance was called. Despite the proximity of Grounsell Park to the Freeman Hospital, it took 45 minutes for the emergency vehicle to arrive on the scene, leaving the referee with no option but to abandon the contest. Eventually Lee was taken off to the RVI for scans to assess the severity of his injury. The diagnosis is a swollen kidney and a chipped hip bone, as well as muscle damage.

Heaton Stannington football club would like to place on record our deep gratitude to all those who have sent Lee their best wishes, especially South Shields FC who, despite their disappointment at the potential expunging of what would have been a fully merited away win from the record books, responded to this situation in a highly professional and compassionate manner. This was especially truly of full back Chris Locke who, in his Percy Main Amateurs days, suffered a serious head injury on the pitch that required the calling of an ambulance and the abandonment of that particular game. In addition, we must give profound thanks to Sandra Telford who provided superb medical assistance for Lee during the interminable wait for the arrival of the paramedics.

The details of the game seem somewhat irrelevant in the light of Lee’s injury, but suffice to say that the absence of Jonathan Wright meant Heaton Stannington lacked a real cutting edge up front, despite the hard work of the deputising Phil Smith. South Shields made great use of the conditions by harnessing the blustery wind behind their backs to open up an early and entirely merited 2-0 lead that The Stan showed no real inclination of clawing back. The first goal came after 9 minutes, when a wind assisted in swinging corner was nodded home from almost on the line by Colin White.

South Shields’s second goal had an element of farce about it. Stan keeper Shaun Backhouse raced off his line to attempt to catch a hanging free kick that caught on the wind and sailed over his head. The unfortunate Kevin Carr was utterly unable to get out of the way of the ball, which struck him on the ankle and rolled apologetically over the line, despite the best efforts of Paul Blakey to clear the ball. The shellshocked home side was utterly unable to get a foothold in the game and could have fallen further behind just before the break, when Luke Richardson’s close range finish was ruled out by the assistant’s flag. However The Stan were unable to profit from this good fortune after the break and still trailed by two goals when proceedings were curtailed after Lee’s injury.

Stan Team:

Subs:

Yellow Cards: Blakey, Phil Smith.

Attendance:

Kevin Mochrie