Heys Gunned Down As Bullets Finally Fire

And so to Adie Moran Park, the home of Prestwich Heys, for the visit of the only unbeaten team in the league, Alsager Town, in a North West Counties Division One fixture.

 

The home club's origins can be traced to February 9th 1938 when a meeting was called at the Music Room of the Heys Road Boys School with the idea of forming an Old Boys Association - the football arm becoming Heys Old Boys AFC. The Heys gradually progressed through the Bury Amateur League and South East Lancashire League, changing their name to Prestwich Heys AFC in 1964. The team joined the Lancashire Combination for the 1968/69 season.

 

Thousands flocked to see the Heys play in the FA Amateur Cup, with the victory over Sutton United in 1969 attracting nationwide coverage, coming a week before their opponents were due to meet Leeds United in the FA Cup. Truly the Heys' heyday !!

 

The club became a founder member of the North West Counties League in 1982 but were demoted to the Manchester League in 1986 due to ground grading issues. Under manager Adie Moran the Heys were champions for three successive seasons between 2005 and 2007. Tragically Moran was killed in a swimming accident in Sri Lanka at the age of 43 in June 2007 which left the club reeling.

After relegation battles, the club renamed the ground in honour of Moran and last season won the Manchester League Premier Division - thereby returning to the North West Counties Football League this summer after a 30 year absence.

Alsager Town are known as The Bullets, after the former Royal Ordnance Factory (now BAE Systems) in the nearby hamlet of Radway Green which produced small arms ammunition for the British armed forces. The club was formed in 1965 as Alsager FC from the merger of Alsager Institute and Alsager United, with the current Wood Park ground acquired in 1967.

 

The Bullets' 51 year journey has incorporated four name changes - 1973 Alsager Town, 1986 Alsager United, back to Alsager FC in 1988 and then to Town again in 2001. Initially starting in the Crewe League, the club joined the Mid Cheshire League for the start of the 1971/2 season and stayed there until being forced out of business in 1988 due to a lack of funds and poor support.

 

The club reformed after a season's absence in 1989 and started again in the Crewe League, then the Mid Cheshire, before spending one season in the Springbank Vending Midland League and then achieving promotion to the North West Counties Football League in 1999. Further success took the club to the Northern Premier Division 1 in 2006 and then Division 1 South for a season, until the Bullets were forcibly relegated for failing FA ground grading requirements.

 

The last six seasons all involved relegation dogfights, with the 2011/12 season preceded by a catastrophic fire at the ground which meant that the club were forced to play all games away until November. Last season started in similar vein - 5 points from 17 games, bottom of the table and a change of manager. An almost Lazarus like recovery ultimately ended in relegation on the final day.

Onto Washway Road, past Sunsation Tanning Centre I notice the 12 foot giraffe (and baby) have gone walkabout and Elvis is still threatening a comeback... Then an empty M60 with a sign proudly proclaiming '17 miles of roadworks'.

 

Normal service is resumed on Barton Bridge - gridlock caused by rubbernecking. An accident on the opposite carriageway necessitating 3 ambulances, 3 police vehicles and 3 recovery trucks, with the tailback stretching to four junctions.

 

Then it's off at junction 17 and into Besses O' Th' Barn, down Thatch Leach Lane where the local youths are doing kamikaze wheelies and onto Sandgate Road to the old Grimshaw, now Adie Moran, Park. Ample parking and £4 in reveals a small covered area to my right in the shade, and a treatment room, office, changing rooms and club bar to my left. Two sides of the ground are backed by housing, another by the M60 and electricity pylons and the final one by trees - apparently with security patrols !

 

A single railing and walkway surrounds the pitch, and the only seating is for those in the know - 16 elderly patio chairs !! Oh and a sign 'If you are the last one out, please lock the main car park gates'.....

 

Heys are in red shirts and white shorts, the Bullets in black and white stripes. The home keeper sports a strange navy and sky blue concoction, whilst his opposite number is wearing a rather dreadful yellow and black ensemble.

There is a minute's silence in memory of Daniel Wilkinson, the 24 year old Shaw Lane Aquaforce/Association player who died during the match at Brighouse last Monday. Then we are underway in glorious sunshine, the cloudless blue sky only punctuated by several aeroplane vapour trails.

 

The first half settles into one of Heys dominance, content to keep possession and make the Bullets work whilst waiting for the chances to come. And they do as Alsager frequently find themselves a man adrift at the back - Danny White's chip just over the bar and captain Jake Wood's header just wide from a corner representing their best opportunities.

 

Then just past the quarter hour a deflected shot loops up and Heys' Paul Tierney reacts fastest to get there first and head past that dreadful yellow and black number. Shortly after the mercurial Erike Sousa shoots wildly wide for the home side in a two on one.

 

With the Bullets misfiring, the half degenerates from one of craft and guile to more of graft and bile. Tetchiness, four bookings, some agricultural challenges and a referee who can't play advantage, ably abetted by two linesmen, one tubby and the other just plain old, hard of understanding regarding the offside rule.

 

At half time Heys lead and the Bullets look spent. To my left a 45 minute telephone conversation about 'her mother's health', to my right a discussion about japonicas - different......

 

The second period continues in similar vein despite a double substitution from the visitors - Heys enjoying the possession and the Bullets firing blanks. However the home side struggle to chisel out opportunities and their only real chance sees Tierney put through but his shot lacks placement and draws a routine save.

 

Then Heys have a real let off as substitute Mark Grice, all alone on the penalty spot, blazes well over the bar when it seemed easier to score. Straight down the other end Prestwich almost double their lead as a fine swivel and volley whistles just past the post.

 

This seems to be the trigger as the Bullets come out all guns blazing for the final twenty minutes. A double barrelled salvo from the visitors' captain and centre half, Paul Taylor, steals the points. First he heads powerfully into the top of the net from a corner, then a throw in is flicked on for him to head home the winner at the far post. The Bullets nearly rifle home a third at the death but their unbeaten start is preserved with the 2-1 victory.