Heacham manager David Griggs says his players used last season’s double defeat against Downham as inspiration for their victory at the SCL Memorial Field on Wednesday night.
The Magpies stormed to the Thurlow First Division North title last season but lost to their West Norfolk rivals, both home and away, in the process.
But his players used those two losses to their advantage as they ended Downham’s unbeaten start to the current campaign with a 2-1 win, thanks to a brace from Lewis Gibson.
Griggs told the Lynn News: “It was part of my team talk before the game. Even though we pipped them to the title, they beat us twice last term and they were yet to lose this season, so I said to the players how about becoming the first side to win against them this season?
“They’re an excellent team but I don’t think I have seen my players more pumped up for a match before than they were on Wednesday night. Even in the warm-up, the management felt that we could get a result.
“Downham scoring just before the break was a real blow as we worked so hard in the first half to keep them out.
“We told the players at half-time to not let the goal take anything out of them and asked them to be even more focused. We always felt the next goal was going to be so important.
“The game was a wonderful advert for local football with how things should be done and the Downham pitch was in the best condition that I have ever seen it.
“I’d like to take the opportunity to thank our travelling fans for their support. They were magnificent.”
Visiting goalkeeper Aaron Watson kept his side in the game with some fine saves between the posts, including a penalty stop from George Watts-Sturrock in the second half.
Gibson’s sublime free-kick also condemned Downham to their first league defeat on home soil since Sheringham secured a 3-1 success at the SCL Memorial Field back in January 2022.
Their winning home sequence spanned an incredible 27 games.
Joint Downham Town boss Craig Dickson said: “We deserved to be ahead at half-time but I think second-half they came out with a bit of fire in the belly and made it more of a challenge for us.
“They started the half so much better than us, got the two goals and It’s difficult when you’ve got a team that work as hard as they do.
“I said it last season, they are the hardest-working team at this level. Yeah, we’ve missed the penalty, but we haven’t created a hatful of chances to get ourselves back into it.
“I think if we’d have scored a second goal in the first half then it would have given us a massive psychological edge. Obviously, we weren’t able to do that today and they’ve come back and scored two cracking goals.
“I’m not walking away thinking we’ve been hammered and outplayed by a team and I’ve always said as long as we’re competitive in every game, then I’ll be proud at the end of the season.
“Maybe we should have done more in the first half to maybe get that two-goal lead and take that advantage into the second half.”
Despite the defeat, Dickson remains delighted at Downham’s progress so far this season.
“I’ve just said to the boys, look we’ve played 10 games, had seven wins, two draws and a defeat. I’d have taken that at the start of the season.
“Our aim is can we be in and around the play-offs for 10 games to go? We’ve started the season well, but you’re going to lose games throughout the season, whether it’s at home or away.
“It’s obviously disappointing because it’s nearly two years since we lost in the league here.”
