Wisbech Town 3 v 1 Heacham

Saturday 1st July 2023, Kick-off 15.00

Pre-Season Friendly
Fenland Stadium, Wisbech
Admission: £4.00
Programme: None
Attendance: 175 (estimate)

After enjoying a break from groundhopping throughout June, save for the Wales v Armenia game as I was in Cardiff anyway, I felt refreshed and raring to go to embark on another season of football travels. And I decided to start with a fairly long distance trip, making the most of trains being fully available today, with strike action affecting services to varying degrees for three of the four remaining Saturdays in July.

Wisbech is a little off the beaten track for long distance visitors, not having a train station, and the most convenient way for me to get there was by taking the train to Peterborough, and then catch a bus for the one hour, 25 mile journey eastwards to the closest bus stop to the ground, about a five minute walk away. Located on the eastern extremity of the Cambridgeshire town of Wisbech, the ground is actually located in Norfolk, with the county border immediately adjacent to the stadium's grounds. Colourful road signs mark the entrance on the passing road, with a fair sized gravel car park available just inside. Entrance to the ground is gained through a seemingly freshly painted turnstile block, with spectators then finding themselves along one length, which is dominated by a large modern and neat brick clubhouse. Some overhang is provided, along with some seating along the exterior wall, while inside there is a spacious bar area, and a tea bar hatch serving a good range of hot and cold food and drinks. Very similar metal stands are located behind each end, with two rows of steps to stand on, although one end additionally has a small section of three rows of seating. A modern metallic all-seater stands straddles the half way line on the remaining length, with dugouts either side, and there is hard standing around the rest of the ground. Unsurprisingly for a ground on the Fens, the ground is rather exposed, and with a stiff breeze blowing across the ground today, one can  imagine that this would be a rather cold and bleak place to watch football at on a winter's day. No programmes were produced for today's fixture, and although the club usually does issue printed programmes during the regular season, they chose not to towards the end of last season due to apparently low sales.

For the coming season, today’s participating clubs will be in parallel Step 5 divisions, after five steps separated as recently as the 2018/19 season, when Wisbech were in the Northern Premier League Division One, and Heacham were in the fourth tier of the the Anglian Combination League. Indeed, Heacham’s progress has been absolutely remarkable, achieving promotion in every season since the 2016/17 season, from the Anglian Combination League Division Five North. And after being crowned champions of the Eastern Counties League Division One North last season, they will take their place in the Premier Division this season, and it will be interesting to see if the progress of this extremely friendly and progressive club from a small rural village on the Norfolk coast finally slows at Step 5 level. Following relegation from the Northern Premier League, Wisbech had a steady season back in the United Counties League Premier Division last season, finishing in eleventh place.

On a mostly cloudy and surprisingly chilly afternoon in the stiff breeze, this was a game that Heacham dominated during the first half, and they took the lead in the tenth minute with an excellent goal. Fletcher Toll ran onto ball over the top, flicked the ball over a defender before striking the ball first time into the top right corner, giving the keeper no chance. Although the game was open and quite entertaining to watch, there were no real goalscoring chances created during the remainder of the half, as Wisbech were looking the rustier of the two teams.

That changed after the break though, as Wisbech largely dominated the second half, and they scored three goals in three devastating minutes around the hour mark. First, on 59 minutes, Arun Jones received the ball from a throw in, took a touch before drilling a low shot from just outside the area, and a minute later, another throw in was launched into the box, evading a couple of Heacham defenders for Rob Conyard to run onto, dribble across goal before striking the ball home. And in the 62nd minute, a hat-trick of goals directly resulting from throw ins was completed when the ball was launched into the box and headed home at the near post by Dimitru. There was to be no further scoring following that quick burst of goals, but both clubs will no doubt be pleased with a decent workout in their first friendly some four weeks ahead of the start of the League season, with plenty of positives to take from their performances. Heacham looked excellent in the first half, before tiring and fielding a very young team towards the end of the second.

Video highlights of the Wisbech goals can be viewed by clicking here