Heacham FC’s season opener a curate’s egg
Over 200 spectators witnessed Heacham FC’s 2024/25 Thurlow Nunn Premier Division campaign opener, which resulted in a 2-1 home defeat to Walsham-le-Willows FC on Saturday, 27th July.
The new look Heacham side took to the field under the guidance of incoming manager, Paul Hunt, with a re-established confidence, as he tried to negotiate the difficult hurdle of blending old players with new.
Heacham Manager Paul Hunt
Make no bones about it, Walsham are no mugs, finishing 8th in this division last year, and provided stern first day opponents. In fact, despite the two and a half hour round trip, it was the visitors who settled the better into the game, controlling the early exchanges, whilst Heacham did their best to contain them.
Walsham’s Kyle Cooper blazed over early on to set the alarm bells ringing, before the lively George Bugg was awarded a penalty on 22 minutes. Captain, Jack Brame, stepped up to take the spot kick but was thwarted by home keeper, Aaron Watson, who managed to palm the ball away. However, the away side’s persistence was rewarded in the 35th minute as Charlie Norman slotted in to open the scoring. The home side’s physical approach was then penalised as George Hutton was booked for a late challenge. As is often the case, the goal seemed to galvanise Heacham and they too were awarded a penalty on the stroke of half time. New signing, Toby Hilliard, appeared to have read the same script as his counterpart, Brame, fluffing his lines as his kick was comfortably saved by Walsham’s Ryan Dunne. From the ensuing corner Heacham were denied again as Dunne pulled off a magnificent save. Half Time : 0-1.
The second half began very much as the first half ended with Heacham pressing. But a sucker punch counter attack by Walsham proved crucial as Norman bagged his second goal in the 55th minute. Heacham’s strong tackling began to fall under the eye of King’s Lynn based referee, Andy Wilson. Whilst his macro refereeing proved accurate, getting the big decisions right, his micro refereeing became inconsistent as he seemed to bow down to the away team’s histrionic game plan, whilst ignoring blatant fouls on the home side. Watson, Dear and Robinson also ended up in the referee’s book. Heacham’s persistence did eventually pay off as Heacham man of the match, Josh Williams, reduced the arrears in the 60th minute but it was all to no avail as Walsham managed to see the game out, almost netting a third as they hit the bar late on.
With a bench of U18’s, Hunt stuck true to his word, introducing four of the youngsters - Harvey Pightling, Conall Forde, Jack Parice and Tom Beattie - into the fray. Whilst it ultimately proved in vain, they will benefit from the experience of playing at this level and will prove pivotal throughout the season on today’s showings.
Heacham do have fight and will not be rolled over in any game but will need a little more nous to compete against the bigger and better financed teams at this level. They were not firing on all cylinders with key players missing and, at the end of the day, the best team won, just, but Heacham will undoubtedly improve on last season under the leadership of Paul Hunt.
New stands named after former chairman Dave Page
The Magpies are next in action at Fakenham Town on Tuesday evening (7.45pm kick off), before facing tough away games in the FA Cup (Harleston Town) and FA Vase (Diss Town).