Shepton Mallet 3 v 0 Bitton

Tuesday 29th March 2022, Kick-off 19.30
Western League Premier Division
Playing Fields, Shepton Mallet
Admission: £7.00
Programme: £1.00
Attendance: 103

Spending a few days staying in North Somerset, this evening I had a choice between Welton Rovers and this game at Shepton Mallet. Although the game at Welton had more riding on it, with third playing fourth in the Western League Division One, I chose to take in this game in the division above, looking a more interesting ground to visit.

The Playing Fields are located on the western fringe of the small town of Shepton Mallet, down a short lane from the passing road, with plenty of parking available along the access road. Plenty of club signage is displayed around the entrance, including a large "next fixture" board, and spectators enter via a gate behind one end. A really friendly welcome was offered at the gate, and this theme was to be continued throughout my visit. It is a ground which is peaceful, well maintained and easy on the eye, with three sides of the ground naturally and tightly enclosed by tall Leylandii trees, and views of the surrounding Mendip Hills visible in the gaps. The clubhouse building is situated immediately to the left of the entrance, stretching to the corner flag, with a tea bar window in the pitchside wall. Just around the corner is a brick building housing the changing rooms, whilst straddling the half way line is an old fashioned all seater stand, freshly painted in black and is cosy inside, and would no doubt offer excellent protection from bad weather, but with many supporting poles and low roofing, views are quite obstructed. To the right of the entrance and beyond the goal there is a modern metallic all seater stand, dedicated to the memory of a former player who died of cancer, and with a concrete seat to the side. Straddling the half way line on the other length is a fairly large stand covering a couple of steps to stand on, while the remaining end has hard standing, lined with a short steep grass bank. Printed programmes were available on entry, 32 pages that were well presented and contained all of the important information to preview the game.

There is not much left to play for either side this season apart from pride, with both clubs deeply entrenched in mid table. Shepton Mallet came into this game in seventh place, following 14 wins and eight wins from 31 league games, and were in good form, winning their last four games in all competitions, three in the league. Bitton were in eleventh place, following 13 wins and six draws from their 30 league games. When the two clubs met in mid October, Bitton won 2-1.

On a dry but chilly evening, Shepton Mallet started the game very strongly, kicking down the quite noticeable slope during the first half, and they impressed with their quick movement, showing for the ball and accurate crossing. And they opened the scoring on 9 minutes when Jacob Sloggett beat two men coming along the byline before smashing the ball home from a tight angle inside the far post. Bitton saw a powerful shot from David Duru saved on 12 minutes, and although the home keeper spilt the ball, he just gathered it back in time. The hosts doubled their lead on 17 minutes following a perfect cross from the right by Jordan Williams, for an unmarked Joe Morgan to head powerfully home. They were denied a third by a superb last ditch tackle by Callum Ball, denying a Shepton forward who had run clear and was about to pull the trigger. The game then became more even, with the visitors keeping possession much better, but they didn't look likely to reduce the deficit.

Into the second half and again Shepton started strongly, and they scored their third on 54 minutes, when Nathan Legge gained possession before playing a perfect low through ball into the path of Josh Williams who took the ball intp the right side of the penalty area, before striking the ball emphatically past the keeper. The hosts were in cruise control for most of the second half, and perhaps should have won even more emphatically, although credit to Bitton for battling away and they could easily have scored a consolation goal, most notably a minute from time when a glancing header from a corner went just over the bar.

Heacham 2 v 0 Waveney

Saturday 26th March 2022, Kick-off 14.30
Anglian Combination League Premier Division
Station Road, Heacham
Admission: £3.00
Programme: £1.00
Attendance: 106

For this year's Non League Day, and with a bright and sunny day forecast, I decided to treat myself to a long day out to the Norfolk coast today, the cost helpfully reduced by using the refund I received for the nightmarish train journey home from Wallingford a fortnight ago. It also felt like a good time to visit Heacham, as the club make their final preparations for their likely elevation into the National League System, and social media suggested that there is a real feel good factor about the club. The promise of a printed programme, unlike at my originally planned game at Holmer Green, was sufficient to seal the deal for me.

After about a five hour train journey to Kings Lynn station, it was then necessary to catch a bus for the 45 minute journey to the small village of Heacham, with the ground about a five minute walk from the bus stop. Some attractive club signage, including a "next fixture" board, is located on the passing road, with a short straight lane leading to the wooden payment hut along one length, to the right of which is a brick stand, colourfully decorated along the top and with club crests along the back wall, and it currently has a couple of steps to stand on. At the moment, it's not a great place to watch the game from, as it is set some way back from the pitch and two wooden dugouts obscure the view, but apparently the dugouts will soon be relocated to the opposite side, and seats will be installed inside the stand. A pavilion building is located in the corner selling mostly cans, whilst a rather impressive selection of club merchandise was for sale from a table in front of the pavilion. The changing rooms are located in a separate building between the pavilion and the entrance, again nicely decorated with club signage. Hard standing has very recently been laid along the length and end closest to the pavilion, whilst the remaining two sides do not yet have hard standing nor railing, but presumably that will follow shortly. A second pitch is located beyond the length opposite the stand, with the club’s reserve fixture being played on it this afternoon. There are no floodlights present at the moment, but apparently there should be no problem in installing them, which would certainly need to happen soon after promotion to the Eastern Counties League. Quite impressively, a PA system was used, and the printed programme on offer was very decent, 28 pages well presented and containing plenty of interesting reading material. A further nice touch was the admission fee also doubled up as a raffle ticket to be in with a chance of winning a prize at half time. There is a really friendly feel to the place, and it is lovely to see the great efforts going in to raise the profile of the club on and off the field being rewarded with the local community clearly feeling engaged with their club. Exciting times indeed for Heacham.

Heacham have enjoyed an impressively meteoric rise through the Anglian Combination League, gaining five consecutive promotions from Division 5 North, and are currently red hot favourites to win the Premier Division this season, and subject to passing ground grading regulations, seem destined to enter the Eastern Counties League next season. They have won twenty and drawn the other of their 21 league games played so far, leading fellow promotion applicant Dussindale & Hellesdon Rovers by four points and have five games in hand. And to put Heacham's rise to the brink of NLS football into perspective, over the last four seasons, they have won 71 out of their last 78 league games, losing just two. Today's opponents threatened to be one of their tougher challenges they will encounter, with Lowestoft based Waveney in third place in the table, following 14 wins and five draws from their 25 league games. In the reverse fixture back in September, Heacham won 1-3 away.

On what was indeed a gloriously sunny afternoon, albeit with quite a chilly breeze present, the first half was quite a scrappy affair, not helped by a rather whistle happy referee, but Heacham created several good chances to open the scoring, with Waveney grateful for a fabulous recovery tackle from behind to prevent a Heacham striker getting a shot on goal on 14 minutes, and on 41 minutes, a low free kick came back off the post, with the follow up shot excellently tipped over the bar. But on 44 minutes, Heacham finally took the lead with a superb volley by Matt Goss from the edge of the penalty area which sent the ball into the top right corner. 

Although Waveney looked a threat on their occasional attacks, Heacham continued to have a measure of control in the second half, and on 52 minutes they thought they had doubled their lead when the ball was headed home following a corner, but the referee disallowed the goal for a push. But they did on 61 minutes when a quick break ended with Nathan Davies drilling the ball inside the right hand post. That really put the result beyond all doubt as Heacham saw the game out comfortably and if anything, they looked the more likely to increase their lead. But they had more than done enough to see off a potential threat to their unbeaten record, and this win means they need just two more to seal the title, and most likely promotion. It will be interesting to see how this thriving village club fares in the years ahead, I wish them well.