Prestwich Heys v Springhead

Adie Moran Park

Manchester League Premier Division

August 22, 2015

Ground No 171

THE new chairman of Prestwich Heys has some work to do if he is to tackle the big issues at the club.

Writing in the programme for today's big first versus second clash in the Manchester League, Neil Gilmore outlines two causes for concern he says should be dealt with "sooner rather than later". One is supporters, mainly the younger ones, going on to the pitch and the other fans bringing dogs with them to the game - both apparently no-nos in the North-West Counties League, to which Heys have genuine aspirations to be.

However as I glanced up from reading the programme before the match I spotted a couple of young kids having a kickabout in  one goal area and four pooches whose afternoon walkies involved a trip to the footy.

None were doing any harm, however, and it's all part of the charm of non-league football for me. Fortunately Mr Gilmore, a retired policeman, chose not to use the strong arm of the law on this occasion to enforce his vision of a dog-free ground and a pitch made out of bounds to anyone but players, officials team personnel.

The programme, incidentally, was well put together and interesting. It's entitled Touchliner, which was the nom de plume used by Alan Proctor Bell, a key figure in the formation of the club and later chairman, who wrote match reports for the local paper.

Another nice touch is that the ground - their home since Bury Council kicked them off their previous Grimshaw's base in 1991 - is named in honour of Adie Moran, who died in a tragic swimming pool accident in 2007 while chairman and manager of the club.



There's a good-sized car park outside the ground and access through the turnstile brings you in at one corner of the pitch.

To the right there is a new, small covered area, and there's hard standing all around the pitch with brick built dug-outs on the far side.

On the near side is a larger expanse of flat concrete standing. Behind the first buildings you come to are the changing rooms, then a homely bar/café with a couple of tellies, beneath one of them a decent collection of trophies, Nice cuppa for 70p too.

On the other side of the bar is a large, flat area which looks tailor-made to house a stand should the club achieve its ambition of climbing the pyramid.

There's no stand (at the moment anyway) but there were plenty of chairs stacked up in front of the changes, which meant you could just pick one up, plonk it where you like and sit down to watch the game.

I suggested to my brother-in-law - a West Ham fan - the Hammers fans would do something similar at the Olympic Stadium and let fans pick up a chair and find a spot on the athletics track to watch the action but he didn't seem all that amused.

The match ended goalless which ensured both sides extended their unbeaten records. Could this be the year that Heys return to the North-West Counties for the first time since 1986? Maybe. Dogs and kids beware.