No programme again - the attendance was officially 137, so no surprise the programmes were sold out before we arrived at the Town Ground, even though we were there for 2:45pm.
Blustery conditions were never going to allow the teams to produce good, flowing football, but Nomads coped far better with the wind and looked the far more comfortable team as the game progressed.
Heanor went into the game on top of the league, having gone 14 unbeaten. Nomads were on the back of a 9 game unbeaten run and to be fair, looked the better team. They were very well organised at the back and snuffed out the usually dangerous Heanor attack with some ease.
We decided to position ourselves in the stand behind the top goal, this afforded decent shelter from the biting wind, although my old rheumy eyes do struggle to see the bottom goal. This becomes even worse when the floodlights are on - the glare adding to the problem!!!
Anstey had the ball in the net on 23 after Lions' keeper Mark Frost had made a cracking save and the loose ball was tapped home, but the Assistant ref had already flagged for offside. The visitors did deservedly take the lead 12 minutes later, Brett Peel's attempted clearance apparently striking the stomach of SIMON ALEXANDER and ending up in the net.
Nathan Benger had a trademark looping header cleared off the line just before the break, but in reality, Nomads' keeper Stefan Joyce had a relatively quiet first half. H-T 0-1
The second half began with Anstey seeming to have decided to hold on to their advantage, allowing Heanor to drive at them. As mentioned previously though, the visiting defenders gave little away. On 58, and against the run of play, Anstey actually went further ahead. Heanor keeper Frost advanced to the edge of his area to clear a hopeful through ball, but right back Jason Foster had the same idea. Unfortunately the players left the ball for each other leaving DARREN TAYLOR the simple task of collecting the ball and walking it into the empty net.
JASON FOSTER redeemed himself somewhat seconds later, looping a 25 yard free-kick past Joyce. Was the comeback on? Heanor thought so, going four up top, throwing Josh Royce and Stef Frost on to partner Benger and Vernon. Unfortunately for the Lions, Anstey were up to the challenge and with 5 minutes to go made the victory theirs. A fierce drive from the left was parried superbly at his near post by Frost - but CHRIS RUSKIN was sniffing three feet from goal and gleefully stabbed home the loose ball.
Heanor striker JAKE VERNON prodded home in stoppage time to give the scoreline some respectability, but in all fairness, the visitors were by far the better team on the day, and were fully deserving of the three points. Heanor remain at the top of the table, but there are several teams ready and willing to topple them if they can't put this defeat behind them and get back to winning ways sooner rather than later. F-T 2-3
Admission £5
Programme - sold out
Attendance 137
