Fitzgerald strike gives Heys victory at Glossop

By Rick Barrett

A sixty fourth minute strike from Dylan Fitzgerald was enough to give ten-man Prestwich Heys victory against Glossop North End at the Asgard Engineering Stadium on Saturday.

Heys were looking for a first win in five league games and welcomed back Kyle Jacobs and Matt Davies into the side after Tuesday's late 1-0 defeat at Kendal Town and it was Davies first into the action in the fifth minute seeing his shot cleared for a corner.

Prestwich, as common in recent weeks, started quickly and on fourteen minutes it was Saidkhon Khamidov shooting wide on the left closely followed by another shot wide from Jacobs.

Back came Glossop and striker Tom Lawless brought a good save from Heys keeper Russ Saunders and they looked dangerous again shortly after when a cross, from a run down the right, was cut out.

The first major incident of the day was on twenty-three minutes, and it was Heys Kyle Jacobs who seemed to get into a war of words with referee Dominic Bell and he was pointed to the dugout initially for ten minutes in the sin bin. However, he continued to argue and then push the referee resulting in a straight red card to put the visitors down to ten men.

Heys flow was halted as Glossop tried to get the upper hand, but they failed to test keeper Saunders although Abdul Djalo did shoot wide on thirty-three minutes.

As the half came to a close it was the ten men of Prestwich looking the more likely, Khamidov put Harvey Roberts clean through but the linesman's flag was up for offside and on the stroke of half time Roberts again was in the thick of it with a lovely cross that captain Aaron Chalmers could not connect his head on to.

So, it was goalless at the break and Heys management team of Lee O'Brien and James Hampson made two changes, full back Nathan Emery and midfielder Pa Jenkins replaced Roberts and Khamidov.

Heys continued to look the more likely as the home side struggled to make the man advantage count. A Dylan Fitzgerald cross come shot went over the bar on fifty minutes, but he made no mistake on sixty-four minutes to put the visitors in front. Great work by Rio Wilson-Heyes down the left resulted in a perfect cross to Fitzgerald who took a touch and smashed it bottom right from twelve yards past Glossop keeper Ellis Allen for 1-0.

Wilson-Heyes was well into his stride in this second half and fired a shot over from twelve yards on sixty seven minutes and striker Jack Coop replaced the hard working Fitzgerald shortly after.

Heys continued to press and on eighty minutes Jenkins hit a cracking shot from twenty yards that was deflected wide when it looked to be flying in the bottom right of the net.

Worse was to follow for the home side shortly after when Finlay Stanyer was given a straight red by referee Bell for a reckless tackle on Heys Gabriel Mooney-Munoz but this seemed to galvanise them into action as they pressed forward to try and snatch an equaliser, however they came up against a resolute back four masterminded by Chalmers and keeper Saunders in fine form seeing them through to an important victory.

A fully deserved win then here for Heys and a strong display after been a man down for a long period of this game. The grit and determination shown will give the management team much encouragement as the games come thick and fast between now and the end of the season.

Team: Russell Saunders, Jacon Ngoy, Nathan Emery, Jack McConnell, Kyle Jacobs, Aaron Chalmers, Harvey Roberts, Connor Brotherton, Matt Davies, Rio Wilson-Heyes, Dylan Fitzgerald Subs: Dan Silver-Adigun, Pa Jenkins (for Roberts 45 mins), Nathan Emery (for Khamidov 45 mins), Gabriel Mooney-Munoz (for Davies 70 mins), Jack Coop (for Fitzgerald 77 mins)

Rick Barrett has his own Heys blog called "View from a Sandgate Bridge" here: https://rickbarrett753.wixsite.com/website-2