Heys Reserves travel to Pennington on Saturday looking to maintain their healthy seven-point lead at the top of the Manchester League 1st Division table.

After, by their high standards of this season, a sticky patch of only one win on four games followed by a couple of postponements Tony Hanson’s side had seen their lead cut to just one point.

However, the last fortnight has seen successive away wins which combined with other results elsewhere has seen them re-establish their clear lead at the top.

A 4-1 win at Govan Athletic thanks to two Adam Nuttall goals and further strikes by Matt Jolly and Steve Charles got them back to winning ways.

Last Saturday, they faced a tough trip to Irlam Steel but emerged 3-2 winners. Ryan Cain, Craig Thomas and the evergreen Jolly were the scorers.

Saturday’s opponents Pennington are in 6th place, ten points behind Heys having played two games more.

However, it represents a tough challenge for Heys as Pennington are unbeaten at home thus far having won five and drawn two of their seven games at Jubilee Park, scoring 23 goals in the process whilst conceding just nine.

The game is the first of three games between now and the turn of the year. Next weekend they host Beechfield here at Adie Moran Park before travelling to Leigh Athletic on New Year’s Eve.