PRESTWICH HEYS 3 SOUTH LIVERPOOL 0
SATURDAY 13TH SEPTEMBER 2025 NW COUNTIES PREMIER DIVISION ATT:209
Report by Paul Thomason

Lightning briefly stopped play at Adie Moran Park, but it was Prestwich Heys who provided the thunder in the second half. A dominant display and a superb hat-trick from the red-hot Connor Martin secured back-to-back wins and a convincing 3–0 victory.

Heys set the tone early. With just four minutes gone, Luke Byron latched onto a clever ball from Takura Sambizi and forced Lucas Allan into a sharp save low to his right. The visiting keeper would go on to have a busy afternoon.

As the rain lashed down, the game turned scrappy, but Heys continued to carve out the better chances. On twenty-nine minutes, Martin looked certain to score when presented with a close-range effort, only for Allan to produce a brilliant double stop before Rob Worrall lashed the rebound wide.
Nine minutes later, Sambizi fizzed a ball across the six-yard box, but no one could apply the finishing touch.

Just before the interval, thunder and lightning forced the referee to halt proceedings, with the players taken off for around ten minutes. When play resumed, the half fizzled out, but Heys had been by far the stronger side and would have felt frustrated to go in level.

The second half, however, was a different story. Heys came out flying and pinned South Liverpool back. Six minutes after the restart, Luke Findlow’s strike was kept out by Allan’s legs, but the pressure was building.

The breakthrough finally came on 58 minutes. Patient build-up play around the box saw Byron pick out Martin, who clinically drilled home to give Heys a deserved lead.

Moments later, Mo Doro’s deflected effort flew narrowly wide as the home side turned the screw.

The goal of the game – and perhaps the month – arrived in the 70th minute. Picking up the ball in the visitors’ half, Martin surged forward before unleashing a thunderbolt from 25 yards that rocketed into the net. A stunning strike that left Allan helpless and the home fans in raptures.

Heys could have had a third soon after when substitute Bryson Appleton cut inside and fired inches wide, but Martin wasn’t finished yet.

On 77 minutes, some super play culminated in a low cross to the far post, and the in-form striker made no mistake, completing his hat-trick with a poacher’s finish. It proved his final act of the game as he left the field with the fans chanting his name, replaced by Alfie Belcher.

From there it was all about game management. Heys never looked like conceding, though Belcher went close himself with a free-kick that whistled just past the post.

It was a day when Connor Martin rightly took the headlines, his treble capped by a thunderous second goal that will live long in the memory. But this was about more than one man – every player in red put in a shift, and on this evidence, Heys look set for many more afternoons like this.

TEAM: Austyn Hall, Joe Camozzi, Luke Findlow, James Badrock (Capt.), David Badrock, Josh Tinker, Mworina Doro, Rob Worrall, Connor Martin, Luke Byron, Takura Sambizi, Subs: Louie Hutchinson (for Findlow 79 mins), Alfie Belcher (for Martin 77 mins), Bryson Appleton (for Doro 65 mins), Reece Lascelles-Higgins (for Camozzi 84 mins), Lucas Bancroft (for Tinker 77 mins)