In the 10th minute, Heanor took the lead with the first chance of the game, when Luke Thompson raced through the middle, latching onto a deft flick from Liam Carter. Thompson kept his composure, outpacing the Hucknall defence and despatching a right footed shot into the left-hand corner of the net.

The remainder of the first half turned out to be a cagey affair with relatively few goalmouth incidents. Jamie Sleigh had a long range effort just off target after 39 minutes, when the Hucknall ‘keeper was stranded upfield, and Hucknall applied some late pressure just before the break without creating a clear-cut chance.

It turned into a bittersweet first half for Luke Thompson, however, as he was helped off the pitch at half time after suffering what looked like a serious injury.

Yasuto Ohmura replaced Thompson at the start of the second period as Heanor looked to extend their lead. A couple of half chances from Jamie Sleigh and Charlie Reece didn’t extend Taylor in the Hucknall net, however.

Hucknall had a huge chance on 63 minutes as a shot was parried by Sykes in the Heanor net, falling to their striker, Marshall, just six yards from goal. But he struggled to sort out his feet and ended up scooping the ball over the crossbar from close range.

Ultimately, Heanor made Hucknall pay for this miss when a cross from the left was only half cleared by the Hucknall defence. Ohmura pounced onto the bouncing ball, arrowing a left footed half volley home in the 74th minute.

Hucknall did pull one back as Reason poked the ball through the legs of Sykes just five minutes later, leading to a grandstand finish. Heanor stood firm, however, surviving over 10 minutes of added time to bank a vital three points in their fight to avoid relegation.