The Over Achieving Village Club - My Visit to Heacham.

Early Starters.

Heacham (stripes) & Soham Town Rangers heading out for the seasons first game.

I said to the guy in the pay box at the Heacham v Soham Town Rangers game that the season’s start earlier, with a July game kicking off the new season. In reality it’s now the norm, this is the 6^th consecutive season I’ve been to a competitive game in July’s final Saturday.

I’m not complaining, it’s nice to get a game for league points as there’s only so many pre-season friendlies with triallist after triallist you can enjoy.

This season I started off in Norfolk in the Eastern Counties Premier Division a league I can’t remember ever attending a game in. The choice was mostly due to it being in the west of the county and therefore closer to my Midlands home. Heacham is only a couple of miles from Hunstanton and just past Kings Lynn, where the notorious Pullover roundabout is a great advert for train travel.

The train taking the strain wasn’t an option today as Heacham doesn’t have a station. It does have a beach though and some decent pubs between the ground and the North Beach which is beside the Wash. It was the Silver Sands pub that served me my lunch, a typical seaside pub with a great choice on the menu and entertainment provided for those holidaying in the village, with a caravan park being close by.

The North Beach at Heacham looking over to Lincolnshire.

Caravans at Heacham

I have to admit that I hadn’t heard of Heacham FC until I saw the fixture in the Non-League Paper so had no idea where it was. The drive took 3 hours and a couple of miles before Hunstanton you turn left onto Lynn Road, this becomes Station Road and you turn right on a bend, there is a sign for the club on the wall of the building to your right as you turn here. If you were to carry on rather than turning off for the ground then you would head to the North Beach.

The signage at the bend on Station Road.

Walk this way.

We're off to the football though and this road ends where the ground is and a spacious car park is available before reaching the facilities. There looked like there were 2 entrances to the ground, one either side of the dressing room building that is ahead of you but only the one on the right, the first one you come to, was open. Two guys were at the paybox getting everything ready for today’s spectators and the first friendly welcome was had as we chatted while they sorted everything out. 9 quid + 2 for the programme gets me in the ground.

The pay box at Heacham.

Heacham have been at this venue since forming in 1907 and played in the local North-West Norfolk League (previously the Hunstanton League). This appears to have been their level until 2016 when they won promotion to the Anglian Combination Division 5, eight promotions later the club found themselves at step 5 in the pyramid, a magnificent achievement for a village club. This also brings problems as the higher you go the more regulations have to be adhered to, the playing budget needs increasing and grounds need improving.

Signage outside the ground.

You enter the ground at the side of the pitch with the dressing room building to your left and a 2 step covered section straddling the halfway line to your right.

Spectators arriving early.

The Dressing Room building.

The oldest structure on the ground is the clubhouse which is in the corner just past the dressing rooms building and set at an angle. This is a spacious room with hot and cold food, snacks and hot and cold drinks plus club merchandise on sale, though if you buy a can of anything it’s opened and poured in a plastic cup for you, no cans allowed pitchside apparently. The people serving us thirsty spectators were really friendly and helpful and are great ambassadors for the club.

The clubhouse.

In preparation for promotion to the Eastern Counties Premier two rows of bench seating was installed inside the covered section mentioned earlier, one row a breeze block higher than the other, with a row of standing behind the seating.

The cover with bench seats.

Floodlights were installed in early 2023, when the club were top of the Eastern Counties division 1 North. Further seating was required for Premier division football and 2 pre-fabricated stands seating 50 in each one were installed behind the left hand goal.

The two 50 seater stands behind the goal.

Hard standing is required at this level and that’s where the club have a problem. Its been laid behind the left hand goal, alongside the dressing room side and just over halfway behind the right hand goal. Here it stops though and the opposite side to the changing rooms is grass standing, but spectators are not yet allowed on that side. With cricket also being played at the venue this side hasn’t got the requisite hard standing and the club are looking at what they can do to make sure they have all that’s required of them.

Restricted access behind the goal.

To see what the village club has achieved though in such a short time is remarkable and that is testament to the committee and community which has supported the club so it can make the most of those 8 consecutive promotions.

The main facilities at Heacham.

This is Heacham's 4^th season at ECL Premier level and they come up against clubs with bigger budgets, grounds and fan base so to compete with these clubs is something to be proud of.

The side stand looking at the pitch.

One of the 50 seat stands behind the goal.

Last season Heacham finished 15^th, 2 places and 3-points above the relegation zone while today’s opening day opponents finished 4^th and only lost out on promotion in a penalty shoot out.

The obligatory huddle.

It was Soham who started the better and took a 16^th minute lead as Mason Newman was left unmarked in the penalty area and managed to fire the ball into the net before the home defender could get his block in. It was a goal you’d be disappointed to concede, leaving a player able to run into the penalty area unchallenged was a bad start.

Mason Newman scores Soham's 1st goal.

Both sides played some good football though there was also a lot of high balls which were to no-one in particular. Despite being a goal down the home side had a few attacks that didn’t really threaten the Soham goalkeeper until Colby Wood surprised everyone with a cheeky lob over Josh Pope to level the scores.

Max Rose controls the ball under pressure from the Heacham defence.

At 1-1 it settled down to an even game, both sides trying to get forward and it would have been a fair scoreline going in at half time, that was until Heacham just seemed to stop marking again. Within 5 minutes Soham had scored 3 goals to lead 4-1. On 38 minutes Jordan Baker fired into the top of the net to restore the lead. Two minutes later Kieran Twinn acrobatically forced the ball home and then on 42 minutes Lewis Jackaman scored from the penalty spot. What a storming turnaround by Soham, who were showing their promotion credentials even this early in the season, it has to be said that they were aided by some lax defending, challenges not being made to stop crosses and shots.

Soham celebrate taking a 2-1 lead.

Lewis Jackaman converts Soham's 4th with this penalty.

Talking to supporters at half time I found out that some Heacham first teamers were unavailable today. One was serving a suspension after getting sent off in the last day of the previous season, the top scorer was injured in a friendly against Kings Lynn and others were out through injury with most of the defence making their debuts for the club.

Josh Fenby making his Heacham debut.

With all that to contend with and thoughts that this could end up a lot worse it was good to see Heacham fight for every ball in the 2^nd half. They created a couple of chances but hesitation hindered any real attempt on goal. Soham did get a 5^th when Lewis Jackaman scored his 2^nd and home keeper Terry Silva made a few important interventions to keep the score down to 5.

Lewis Jackaman makes it 5-1 to Soham.

One game in and Heacham are bottom having lost 5-1, early days of course and players are due to return which should shore up what was a promising 2^nd half performance. In between visiting and writing this blog Heacham lost 4-1 to Downham Town on the Tuesday. In a division of better resourced clubs managing a 5^th season at this level is going to take a lot of hard work and for everyone to be on top of their game and I wish this very friendly club the best of luck.