HEATH DRAW AT FOREST

A blustery day and a difficult pitch made for life tricky as two teams who like to play passing football shared the points on Saturday, although Heath will feel they deserved and should have got the win their football deserved.

From the start Heath pushed forward testing the keeper with a couple of shots and crosses which he dealt with comfortably, but they were nearly undone when the Forest centre forward had a chance but the ball bobbled and Chris Turner made a good save. After ten minutes the referee had a major decision to make when the Forest centre half Elliott, who was the last defender and had been comprehensively beaten for pace, decided to cynically hack down from behind Lee Skinner as he headed towards goal down the centre of the pitch. The referee somehow decided that a yellow card was sufficient whilst the watching crowd were surprised that a red wasn't shown. Unfortunately the free kick came to nothing. Ten minutes later a long downfield punt by the Forest right back was seized on by the centre forward who fell over from a slightly rash challenge. The resulting penalty was hit with sufficient power to beat Chris Turner even though he got a foot to the ball.

Heath went back on the attack to quickly equalize and from a couple of lovely moves first Dean Picher just put his effort over the bar, then Lee Skinner misjudged a header from a McMenemy cross. Then from a flowing Heath move, Mark Beard made space with a great turn but he couldn't quite get enough curl on the shot from the edge of the box and it just went wide. Another attack led to Dean Pitcher miscuing his effort and then Elliott the Forest centre half smashed through the back of Lee Skinner in a rash attempt to play the ball. The pernickety ref, who had spent time during the half telling the subs to sit down in the dug out, somehow decided to ignore the big decision that was needed and again Elliott was lucky to stay on the pitch. Again the free kick came to nothing and the half ended with Forest one up.

Heath started the second half slowly, and within five minutes Forest could have doubled their lead when the centre forward who was clear sliced wide as Chris Turner stood tall in the Heath goal. This escape prompted Heath to their best spell of the game with the back four looking solid in defence and pushing forward to overlap and support the midfield. Rob Cooper on one wing and Luis Freitas on the other started giving the Forest fullbacks lots of problems. One great move started with right back John White feeding Olly Day, he linked with Rob Cooper and he then picked out the well timed run of Beard into the box. He pulled the ball back to Dean Pitcher who had cleverly made space, but he just couldn't quite keep the shot down. It was all Heath now and it was no surprise when from another Luis Freitas run down the left, he beat the full back and crossed from the byline to Lee Skinner who calmly controlled the ball and then steered it into the net for his third goal of the season and the richly deserved Heath equalizer. Following the goal the last twenty minutes saw Heath trying to push for the winner, with Olly Day just shooting over, Pitcher and Skinner narrowly missing, and Cooper being denied. At the other end the Heath centre halves, Louis Wright and Tommy Howes who have formed a good partnership, were rock steady as they dealt with any dangers from Forest. Towards the end of the match some more good moves led to shots that were blocked from Rob Cooper and Mark Beard, and then Mark Enticknap attempted to better last weeks effort when he hit a rasping drive from 25 yards that just flew wide of the goal. There was just time for the referee to get another decision wrong when he booked Rob Cooper after the Forest keeper had punched him in the face, and then the whistle went and the points were shared.

This week Heath are in County Cup action when they host Maresfield at Hanbury Stadium with a 3.00pm kick off.

Team

Turner, White, Wright, Howes, McMenemy, Freitas (Humphries 65), Beard, Day, Cooper, Pitcher (Enticknap 75), Skinner

Man of the Match

White