While the eventual result was the same, a defeat and no points, the performance that The Stan put in at Chester Moor Park was light years away from the sluggish, almost complacent loss to Stokesley that Heaton had endured in their previous game. 

Frankly, the main reason The Stan travelled back up the A167 with nothing to show for their efforts was simply rank bad luck; no tactician in the world can legislate for the freakish misfortune that marred the evening when Richie Hoggins attempted a clearance and saw the ball spin insanely over the head of Shaun Backhouse and in to the net to give the home side a lead they simply did not deserve.

The high-tempo, direct, long-ball tactics of Chester Le Street were tailored to the pronounced slope they enjoyed the advantage of in the first period, though the first efforts of the game were all by The Stan;n Jonathan Wright hammered a left foot effort over the bar in the opening minute, then Gary McGarrigal headed an Anthony Johnson corner wide within another 90 seconds. 

Craig Mickle did almost give the home side the lead on 6 minutes, but was just unable to stretch for a low cross on the 6 yard line. On 18 minutes Wright flighted a free kick from the angle of the box just wide of the near post.

Just after the half hour, the same player sent a dangerous ball across the box that Richie Hoggins just failed to convert. When Brian Dodsworth picked up the resulting loose ball, Lee Johnson who had been denied by a point blank stop from a header on Saturday, endured the same misfortune and to add insult to injury, Chester Le Street broke down the left and put in the cross that the unfortunate Hoggins was only able to divert in to his own net, courtesy of the most ludicrous of miskicks. 

This goal appeared to unsettle The Stan and Chester Le Street were able to profit, when Michael Hepplewhite doubled their advantaged by driving a loose ball across Backhouse into the corner of the net. Certainly it was a poor goal as The Stan really ought ot have cleared their lines before the ball broke in the box.

Despite sterling efforts, the visitors were unable to make any appreciable headway in their attempts to reduce the deficit before the game’s midpoint, though they threw the proverbial kitchen sink at the punch-drunk Cestrians for the entire second half. Sadly, the only reward a superbly committed Heaton Stannington side could muster was Jonathan Wright’s deflected 70th minute strike, when he was set up by a deft back header by Lee Johnson. 

For the rest of the half, ill-luck dogged the Heaton efforts; Dodsworth clipped the outside of the post with an eye-catching angled drive, Wright’s snapshot was unceremoniously bundled behind by keeper Kyle Barlow after an embarrassing fumble and Andrew Weeks, who was The Stan’s star performer on the night, was desperately unlucky to see an effort deflected wide.

Sadly, absolutely nothing dropped kindly in the latter stages and a highly streetwise Chester Le Street team were able to successfully close out a victory that their play had scarcely merited. Perhaps the important lesson that The Stan can take from this is that the astute nature of experienced teams can win them points on occasions when their football is no match for the naïve, but enthusiastic new kids on the Northern League block. 

That said, the team have absolutely nothing to upbraid themselves for; they gave their all, but were simply very unlucky in the final analysis. It need scarcely be said that we will, and indeed did, play worse and win.

Heaton Stannington: Unknown.

Subs:

Goals: Wright 70.

Yellow Card: Weeks.

Attendance: 102.

Match Photos: Flickr.

Kevin Mochrie