It was a historic sunny Saturday afternoon for the Stan as they played their 1st league match at tier 4 of non-league & also took on Belper Town for the 1st time. Unfortunately, after going ahead, the Stan ended up losing the match by a goal. There were 2 changes from the previous Friday night’s FA Cup win with Marriott & Anderson replacing Hornsby & Sayer. The match was preceded by a minute’s applause in memory of Stan volunteer Brian Pratt who sadly passed away in May.
After a quiet start, Belper headed wide from a corner in the 5th minute. The 1st Stan attack came in the 10th minute & a minute later a Slaughter free kick was cleared & although the ball was again sent back into the Belper box twice it was cleared on both occasions. Soon after Belper had a corner which saw the ball initially blocked with the rebound shot being cleared off the goal line by Palmer.
Belper shot wide in the 15th minute followed by Walker being blocked in the visitor’s box, but nothing was given. In 18 minutes, an attack started by Slaughter was headed out for a corner. From it the ball went out to Lamb who crossed to Palmer, but his shot was blocked. 2 minutes later & a Stan attack was cleared & although the ball was sent back in it was headed clear under pressure.
In the 23rd minute, a Lamb free kick hit the wall & Hopper’s rebound shot went over the bar. Stan then had a free kick cleared. After a good initial start by Belper, it was now the Stan who were in the ascendancy. Both teams were though trying to attack & it was Belper who came close to scoring in 27 minutes. At the end of a Belper attack the ball was kept in by a visiting player when it looked to everyone else that it was going out. He managed to send the ball across the goal line & although it was missed by everyone except a Belper player on the far side of the goal whose shot was expertly saved by Brass. 3 minutes later & Belper shot well wide.
There was then a quieter period until the start of a few minutes of Stan pressure from the 38th minute. Lamb ran down the left & shot wide & in 41 minutes, after Anderson was brought down just outside the box, Slaughter sent the resulting free kick wide but it was deflected for a throw in. After a Belper attack was cleared, the 1st half ended goalless.
Both teams started the 2nd half positively. In 50 minutes, the Stan came close to scoring when a Lamb free kick into the box just missed Hopper & Turnbull & it went just wide.
In 52 minutes, Hopper advanced into the Belper box & was brought down. The resulting penalty in the 54th minute was put comfortably into the net by Hopper for 1-0 to the Stan & it was their 1st goal in the Pitching In Northern Premier League East. There was then some more pressure by the Stan although Palmer & Turnbull both had to be replaced due to injuries.
In 67 minutes, Belper were level when a shot was blocked but the rebound effort was put into the net. In 70 minutes, a Lamb free kick into the packed Belper box saw a shot by blocked by the keeper & the rebound shot was also cleared. An almost identical free kick from Lamb a minute later was headed clear & although Slaughter was fouled Belper were allowed to continue with their counterattack involving 5 players against 1 although they shot over the bar.
2 minutes later & another Belper counterattack ended with a shot going well wide. In 74 minutes, a Lamb shot was caught by the Belper keeper. The Stan defence had to work well for a couple of minutes although after 80 minutes a Hopper high ball into the Belper box was blocked.
In 82 minutes, a ball from a Belper free kick was blocked in the Stan box twice before an opportune shot from the edge of the box went past everyone & into the net for 2-1 to Belper.
In 85 minutes, Lamb sent a ball into the Belper box for sub Lashley at the far side of goal but his downward header was somehow stopped by the Belper keeper. The ball was sent back in by sub Burn but the keeper caught it. The Belper keeper Dan Moore again frustrated the Stan when in 87 minutes he got to the ball just before the advancing Lamb & he hit the ball off Lamb & was able to catch it. Belper then sent a ball up & into the 6 yard box but it hit one of their own players in front of goal but was unseen by him allowing Brass to catch it.
Into 4 minutes of added time & Belper managed to keep the ball in the Stan half for most of it.& the match ended disappointingly for the Stan.
Despite the Stan deserving at least a draw, the visitors left with all 3 points. It was the Stan’s 1st home league defat since the 1st match of last season with them only losing once at home in the league last season. There is more history on Tuesday night as the Stan travel to Pontefract for their 1st away fixture in the Pitching In Northern League East.
Heaton Stannington: Brass; Marriott; Evans; Palmer (Burn 62); Turnbull (Lashley 74); Shepherd; Walker (Foster 86); Slaughter; Anderson; Hopper; Lamb.
Unused Subs: Corkhill, Ellison
Goals: Hopper 54 (Pen).
Supporters Man Of The Match: Kane Evans.
Referee: Mark Bell.
Assistants: Barry Tones, John Davison.
Attendance: 417.
Match Photos: Flickr.
Kevin Mochrie