Heath Salvage a Late Point at Hanbury
The Heath welcomed Little Common to Hanbury Park Stadium on a chilly Saturday for their first SCFL fixture of a busy December. Naim Rouane’s side coming off the back of a 2-0 away win at Varndeanians, seemingly with a revived confidence.
2 changes were made to the side which beat Varndeanians, Josh Spinks coming in for the injured Dan Cadman, and Cameron Dobell regaining his starting spot over Sam Geard. It took over half an hour for the deadlock to be broken, and it took some Lewis Finney magic to do it. Bending the ball into the top corner despite the tight angle. Finney nearly had his second 2 minutes later, Cameron Dobell’s perfect cross meeting the number 10’s head, the ball crashing against the crossbar and then landing on the roof of the net. The Little Common defenders couldn’t handle Finney as he doubled Heath’s lead 4 minutes before the break; cutting inside and finding the very same corner to give the Blues a 2 goal cushion at half-time.
Little Common came out fighting at the start of the second half, pulling a goal back in the early stages, the come back looked to have been cancelled out by Cameron Dobell, who broke free on the counter-attack leaving him 1 on 1 with the Common goalkeeper, Sceale got a hand on the lobbed effort, but it wasn’t enough to stop it bouncing over the line. Little Common showed their determination to stay in the game, scoring a second to bring the scores to 3-2, and were then awarded a penalty which was converted, Alfie Jones despite his impressive penalty save record, was unable to guess the right way as the visitors found themselves level.
Both teams fought for a 4th goal, but it was once again the visitors who applied the clinical touch, and with only 7 minutes to go were on their way to completing an impressive comeback victory. In the dying moments, Heath had a penalty of their own, a push in the back of Josh Spinks who was mid-jump from a corner gave skipper Byron Napper a chance to salvage a point from the spot. Calm, composed and sent the goalkeeper the wrong way, Mr Reliable for the Heath on his 201st appearance rescued a point for the Blues.
A game where only the neutrals left with a regular heart rate, but all fans left cold. Action-packed and full of goals.