Competition: NCEL Premier Division
Scorers:
Lions - Kieran Debrouwer (30 pen), Lee Stevenson (79)
Garforth - CJ Lyle (8)
We decided to have a change of scenery inside the ground, so located ourselves in the main stand, rather than taking up our usual position behind the top goal. As we were walking to the stand, we met Brett Marshall who kindly interupted his telephonic communication to shake our hands.
I mention this because Brett was still on the phone until the final whistle! We caught glimpses of him standing all alone with his phone glued to his ear, but Heanor boss Glen Clarence got a little closer after the game, as is evident from their twitter selfie!
Brett and Glen selfie
Garforth line up Heanor squad
We've been to see Heanor twice recently, and watched then lose twice, so it looked ominous as Garforth powered forward from the off, and went deservedly ahead after just 8 minutes play.
The goal came after some indifferent defending allowed the ball to be played into the left corner of the box where CJ LYLE was waiting to control neatly and fire the ball across Mark Frost into the far corner of the net.
Heanor seemed to take this as a bit of a wake-up call, and began to push forward, but their visitors were quick on the counter and with both teams creating chances, the game became a pulsating end to end encounter.
Referee Michael Scriven awarded the Lions a penalty on the half-hour mark after Josh Raven was tripped on the edge of the box. The Garforth faithful standing near to us all knew better than the Ref though, shouting out for all to hear that the trip was "outside the box" and "it wasn't even a foul" - who'd be a Ref, eh?
Anyway KIERAN DEBROUWER stepped up and smashed the penalty past Garforth keeper Ben Hunter to net his 54th goal of the season. H-T 1-1
The second half was as action packed as the first, with both teams striving for the winner, although we had to wait until the 79th minute for the goal that eventually secured the points for the Lions.
LEE STEVENSON recently celebrated his 250th appearance for Heanor, and it was the utility player who smashed home through a crowd of players from 25 yards, after he was fed the ball by Debrouwer.
Garforth had found Debrouwer difficult to live with throughout the game, and some of his play was outstanding. On one occasion the hit-man ran fully 50 yards with the ball, racing into the box and only a great save from Hunter at the base of the post denied us of what wiould have been the goal of the season. F-T 2-1
Admission: £3 (concession)
Programme: £1
Attendance: 132
MOM: Gary Webster - tireless in midfield - great performance.
