Dereham Town 3 v 1 Heybridge Swifts

Saturday 14th August 2021, Kick-off 15.00
Isthmian League North Division

Aldiss Park, Dereham

Admission: £8.00

Programme: £2.00

Attendance: 214

With only one ground left to tick off in all four divisions of the Isthmian League, I made it a priority to complete the job this season. There is a good reason why I saved a visit to Aldiss Park until last - quite simply, it is comfortably the furthest from my base on the south coast, and involving quite a trek using public transport, my preferred means of travel on Saturdays. Having booked reasonably priced Advance tickets a month beforehand, I did fear the “pingdemic” could yet throw a spanner in the works. But happily, those fears proved unfounded as I made my way up to Norfolk today.

After arriving at Norwich train station, I then walked 15 minutes across the city centre to the bus station, from where regular buses ply the route westwards for the half hour journey to within virtually a stone's throw of Aldiss Park, located on the eastern extremity of the town. A welcome board with next fixture information is located at the entrance, inside which is a fairly large car park. Entrance to the ground is gained through turnstiles located inside an attractive small brick hut, towards the corner flag along one of the lengths. Plenty of picnic tables are located along this length, and a large brick building houses the clubhouse, with a traditional looking bar area inside with a good range available, and a function room to the rear. A tea bar hatch is located in one of the side windows. Along the opposite length is quite a long but compact metallic olive coloured stand, with two rows of seating inside, save for areas to stand on at either end, and some club banners are attached to the back wall. A small modern metallic stand is located behind one end, and work seems to have begun on installing a couple more small stands behind the other end. Aldiss Park is certainly not a ground to make the heart race, but it is functional, spacious and perfectly adequate to provide a comfortable visit for Isthmian League football. Happily, a printed programme was produced, containing 32 pages in colour on good quality paper, and it seemed to be a popular purchase.

Today was the opening day of the Isthmian League season, between two clubs firmly established in this division, with this being Dereham's ninth season in the division, and Heybridge's thirteenth. In last season's all too brief action, Dereham won two and drew two of their seven league games, while Heybridge won three and drew one of their eight league games. There was a famous face in the Heybridge dugout today, with West Ham legend Julian Dicks returning for his second spell as manager this season.

On a very overcast afternoon, with an unforecasted short rain shower arriving late in the first half, the game had an explosive start, with the home side taking the lead with just two minutes on the clock. Rhys Logan played an inswinging free kick from the left wing towards the back post, where Robbie Linford poked the ball home. Heybridge settled down and create a couple of decent chances which made the keeper work, but on 38 minutes, Dereham doubled their lead when David Hinton guided a low ball through the defence for Shaun Bammant to run onto and tap the ball past the onrushing keeper. Not much else of note occured in the remainder of the half, and Heybridge would have it all to do in the second half to get anything from the game.

Dereham had the first two decent chances of the second half, before Heybridge were awarded a penalty on 70 minutes after some great pace from the Heybridge forward saw him accelerate past the defence and into the penalty area, before being bundled over from behind by Hinton, who also received a yellow card for his troubles. Alex Teniola struck the ball powerfully into the bottom left corner, just out of the keeper's reach. Suddenly it looked a different game, as soon afterwards a shot from the right side of the penalty area went whistling just over the bar by Heybridge's Tom Adeyemi. But just as the visitors were really building up a head of steam, left back Archie McFadden was shown a second yellow card and then a red for a late tackle on 75 minutes. And it seemed their hope was all but extinguished on 78 minutes with Luke Johnson curling a beautiful shot in off the far post. Heybridge did keep pushing to get back in the game, and it seemed that they had pulled a goal back on 81 minutes when Joseph Claridge fired a free kick from a central position inside the right hand post and into the net, but the referee blew his whistle for a foul in the wall. Dereham then had a couple of good chances to extend their lead, but 3-1 was how it finished following a good performance against a good team who will probably be challenging for the play-offs this season.

Video highlights of this match can be viewed by clicking here