Heywood St James 1

Monton Amateurs 2

For the second time in a month Heywood St James played host to a team harbouring championship aspirations. Opponents Monton Amateurs started the game second in the Manchester Amateur League – and, like the clash with table-topping Bury Amateurs, Jimmies tasted defeat by the odd goal.

The hosts weren’t short on effort, but they are certainly short of luck as the visitors’ winning goal came from a hotly-disputed penalty in the 63rd minute.

Heywood St James suffered an early setback, falling behind to a well-worked opener.

But the home team hit back, Carney levelling the scores after Alessandra’s ball into the box created an opportunity, which he converted superbly.

Monton were on top for the remainder of the half with neat build up play, but they were unable to breach a determined Jimmies’ defence.

The visitors were quicker out of the blocks in the second half and Latham in the Jimmies’ goal had to react quickly after his clearance was rifled straight back towards an empty net – Latham managing to divert the ball away from goal.

It was a close shave soon followed by another, a powerful header from a perfect corner striking a defender and hurtling past the upright for another corner.

The key moment of the match saw the referee award a penalty against the home team – many observers shared the opinion it was a harsh decision, the foul having been committed on the edge of the box.

This was, though, of little concern to Monton, who gratefully accepted the gift and slotted home the spot kick with some aplomb, Jimmies again made to pay for rash tackling.

With 27 minutes remaining, Jimmies had time to respond and a lung-bursting run by Mike Weatherilt kept the ball in play with Monton defence spread-eagled, only for the referee to blow for a goal kick, despite being 40 yards from the incident.

Latham epitomised the home team’s spirit when he dived into a ruck of players to snatch the ball from an attacker’s foot and, when beaten by a low drive, he enjoyed a well-deserved slice of luck, the ball rebounding off the upright.

It was the last action, with Monton continuing their run of form and their hopes of lifting the title.

The Heywood team, as often seems to be the case when struggling at the wrong end of the league, have had a spate of big decisions go against them in recent games, but now need to maintain their battling spirit, show the right attitude to turn things around.

Heywood St James have no game this weekend, but follow with two consecutive home games when they resume.