‘It’s better than watching England’ was the chant of the Stan fans, well at least the Scottish ones. While England ground out a meaningless 1-0 friendly win against Denmark, Heaton Stannington managed to achieve a 1-0 win in a six pointer promotion match thanks to an isolated moment of class from Jonathan Wright.

After postponements due to ice and rain, the derby finally took place on a relatively mild and very dry Wednesday night at WhitleyPark. These two teams have a long history of competition although before the start of this season they had not met in league action since 2004.

The first five minutes saw chances for both teams but with Celtic going on to have most possession early on. Dodsworth did come close for the Stan after fifteen minutes with an overheard kick. The home team continued to dominate until the last ten minutes of the first half when the Stan began to exert some pressure although on forty five minutes Celtic’s Reid headed over. In injury time there was a collision between Blackhouse and a Celtic player although Marty’s magic water did the trick for Shaun until half time.

Substitute Ben Telford had been the focus of the crowd just after the fifteen minute mark when the referee required him to remove his cycle shorts from below his football shorts before coming onto the pitch. Was he trying to upstage his mum’s performance eleven days earlier when she saved the day when Lee Johnson got injured?

West Allotment again dominated the start of the second half and hit the post in the forty eighth minute. There were few shots though for either team. Not much happened for a while and even when there was a flasher it was a fan with a camera. Although he seemed subdued, all it needed was one right move by Wright and it came in the sixtieth minute. He picked up a through ball on the edge of the box and scored. One shot on target was enough for the Stan though they did start to assert pressure on the game after the goal. Although Celtic began to run out of steam, they revived to cause a tense last ten minutes. They had a number of shots on goal including one that looked to be going in but luckily just went over.

The Stan held out for a crucial win. In the post match interview, manager Derek Thompson avoided head butting the match reporter and stated that the win was ‘a great result for the Stan Army!’ The promotion race continues!

Stan Team: Backhouse, Hoggins, James, Balmain, McGarrigal, Wear (C), Mills, Johnson L., Wright, Dodsworth, Deagle.

Subs: Telford, Wood, Smith, Blakey, Darren Welsh.

Goals: Wright 60.

Yellow Cards: Wear, Smith.

Attendance: 180.

Kevin Mochrie