Heanor travelled to Central Midlands outfit Belper United FC in the Derbyshire Senior Cup 2nd Round on a mild Remembrance Day evening, The Lions looked un-nerved by the side two steps lower on the football period as Jamie Clarke saw red late on.
Belper had three players with Heanor links in their side, Adam Moss, Matt Brittle and Shaun Roulston. Heanor were missing a list of players due to work, family commitments and injury.
In an incident as early as the third minute where Jay Cooper was felled in horrible fashion, Danny Claridge looked to seek an early bath – the full back running some distance to push the Belper player at fault away from the injured player. Ref Jack Carter saw fit to only show Heanor’s left back a yellow card.
Stephen Hart, filling the left wing position, joined the attack in the fifth minute. His strike with the outside of his left foot only just missed the target from fifteen yards.
Clarke should have put Heanor ahead on fourteen minutes with a header from a Claridge corner. The front man leapt highest in the penalty area to nod the ball over via the cross bar.
Alex Brown was the next Heanor player to try and open the scoring, the young midfield sent Belper goalkeeper Lewis Bamford clutching at air as the drive flew past the upright.
Dan White, Heanor captain for the night in the absence of Nick Hall, saw himself in the referee’s notepad on twenty two minutes after an overzealous challenge on the half way line.
Jamie Clarke eventually opened the scoring on thirty eight minutes, nodding home from ten yards. A corner kick found the head of Danny Claridge who headed the ball to Clarke to plant the header home.
United hadn’t given up trying to break the Heanor defence down and they got their reward on forty one minutes, a cross from deep to the far post found Adam Robley unmarked to stab home.
Heanor went in for the break in the lead after Jay Cooper collected free kick twenty yards out, from his central position he managed to fire through a crowd of players to find the bottom left corner.
Belper had tried to play text book style football through the first half, passing from left to right and back again but hadn’t yet created a prolonged spell of attack in the Heanor half.
The Lions extended their lead on fifty one minutes. Kieran Debrouwer got onto the end of another deep cross from Claridge to glance a header into the top corner from a yard out.
Belper didn’t lose heart despite the two goal lead held by Heanor, Sam Vickers whipped in a free kick to Ben Stockley who drilled home under ex-Belper United goalkeeper Scott Whittingham.
Kieran Debrouwer and Joe Naylor both found their names being taken by Mr Carter on seventy two and seventy five minutes, the official seeming to offer more leniency to Belper United over Heanor, preferring to simply talk through failures of discipline with the home team.
With five perfectly good goals and a lot of huffing and puffing from both teams it is a shame that the game will be remembered for two decisions by Mr Carter. In fairness to the referee what happened in the seventy sixth minute gave him no option but to show a red card to Jamie Clarke. The ex-pro striker was being forced back towards Heanor goal with some over efficient marking from Matt Brittle, enough to warrant Heanor being awarded a free kick. Clarke saw fit to bounce the ball off the back of Brittle’s head as he retreated to defend.
With Heanor again suffering due to the lack of discipline of players that should know better it became a dull final fifteen minutes, Heanor changing shape to nullify the attack of United when the home team knew that one goal would give them a chance to hurt Heanor in extra time.
Heanor: Whittingham, Marriott, Claridge, Brown, Benger, White, Cooper, Naylor, Clarke, Debrouwer, Hart (Bettney 70).
Unused: Burrows, Hodgkinson, Townsend.
Referee: Jack Carter.
Attendance: 122