Heacham manager David Griggs hailed last night’s 4-0 victory over Dereham as one of the best results in the club’s history.
A brace from Luke Gray, a stunning strike from Nathan Davies and an own goal saw the Magpies brush aside the visitors at the Heacham Sports Field.
The result avenged the 5-1 defeat in the reverse fixture last month and stretched Heacham’s unbeaten run in the Thurlow Nunn Premier Division to five games.
Griggs said: “It probably has to go down as one of the biggest in the club’s history. Having a club like Dereham Town come here shows how far we’ve come as a club.
“To go on and win the game and do it in that style is fantastic. We thought it would be a game of two halves and didn’t think 1-0 would be enough at half-time.
“We expected Dereham to come at us early in the second half, but as soon as we scored our second we knew they were beat.”
Heacham have taken time to adapt to life in the Premier Division after losing five of their opening six fixtures and Griggs spoke about the club’s upturn in fortunes.
“They absolutely outclassed us at their place a few weeks ago and that was hard to take,” he admitted.
“To turn it around tonight is a nice feeling, we’ve improved. We’ve changed system, we’re asking lads to do different jobs and training has been different.
“It was like the Thetford game here a few weeks back, but today we created good chances.
“We’re into injury time in the game, we are 4-0 up and there are people throwing their bodies at balls on the line to make sure we didn’t concede. That’s what it meant to us.”
Dereham enjoyed plenty of early possession, but Heacham remained disciplined without the ball and gave the visitors an early reminder of their capabilities when Gray skied a Fletcher Toll cross over the woodwork.
Davies and Toll both had half-chances for Heacham as the wind and rain continued to swirl across the ground on a filthy night for football.
The home side took the lead in the 26th minute with the strong wind and a moment of hesitation from Pieri Mack playing a big part in the opening goal as the young Dereham goalkeeper helped the ball into his net.
Heacham soaked up a little bit of Dereham pressure towards the end of the half and were good value for their half-time lead.
The hosts doubled their advantage at the start four minutes into the second half as Gray latched on to a through ball before firing past a bemused Mack.
Two soon became three with the best goal of the night as Davies unleashed an unstoppable half-volley past the visiting goalkeeper from the edge of the D and into the net.
Heacham rounded off the scoring midway through the second half after a deft touch from Toll sent strike partner Gray clear before he rounded the goalkeeper and rolled the ball into the empty net for his second of the night.
Although they forced a succession of late corners, home goalkeeper Aaron Watson was rarely troubled between the posts.
Heacham were determined to keep another clean sheet and demonstrated their resolve in the dying seconds by scrambling the ball off the line after Dereham’s initial effort had come back off the post.
Heacham: Watson, Akers, Mitchell, Daw (Williams), Goss, Kortua, Dear (Lammiman), Toll, Davies (Osborne), Gray (Wood), Gilbert.
