Our live feed has now finished.
- FT: Heather 2 (Clarke 27p, Dempster 87) City 0
- CITY succumbed in a fraught scrap as Heather survived red cards for a player and a coach to win 2-0.
- The Saints snapped and snarled their way to victory, winding down the clock and up their opponents to great effect.
- What the hosts could not be faulted for was the edge that gave their game, particularly in the final third to make the most of few openings.
- City found it tough to go up against and in truth rarely looked like scoring, although a replay shows they were denied a clear penalty at 1-0.
- There had been little action until the 27th minute when Kurtis Mewies wrestled Kieron Clarke to the ground in the box with Heather’s leading scorer coolly planting home the penalty down the middle.
- Play was taken over by scraps and schisms that referee Simon Kavanagh simply failed to get a grip of and City seemed rattled.
- Jamie Smith’s drive from distance forced keeper Stuart Parsons to parry but that was the away side's only effort of note in a drab first half that got mildly better after the interval.
- Dan Jezeph saved point blank from substitute Ross Dempster with 19 minutes to go to keep City in it and moments later the home side were reduced to 10 men when Umar Zaman chopped down Sam Hall on the halfway line to pick up his second yellow card.
- Scorer Clarke got in a tangle with City’s Tyreece Ruddock on the right of his own box with a replay showing he had slapped the ball away with his hand while grounded but the officials missed the infringement, despite it happening the side that the assistant referee was stationed on.
- Malachi Farquharson had the ball in the net with nine minutes to go but it was ruled out for a foul on Jezeph and Saints coach Chris Knott lost the lottery of which of the men from his dugout would be banished after 85 minutes of collective, albeit understandable barracking of the man in the middle.
- Jezeph could do nothing about the strike that sealed it, though, a long punt from Parsons bouncing for Dempster to cushion across goal on the half volley one on one.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article