The Greens had been a month without a home fixture but returned to The Longwater Stadium with a flourish, two goals in each half proving to be the decisive blows. Ryan Rushen was the star man bagging himself a brace, bundling in after Akeel Francis had been denied from the penalty spot, before helping the ball into the net from a Ryan Flitton corner. The other pair of goals arrived courtesy of Joe Smith – who headed in right on the stroke of half time – and debutant Jonny Nyantou who coolly swept home to cap off an easy victory for the home side.
Heather St. Johns meanwhile were indebted to keeper Tom Allsopp who made countless fantastic saves to keep the score down – though he did give away the penalty that led to the first goal, initially being sent off by the referee as a result before seeing the decision overturned after deliberation with the linesman.

Manager Tom Ward made a trio of changes from last weekend’s Isuzu FA Vase penalty shootout defeat at local rivals Newark & Sherwood United. Kyle Watkins, Ryan Rushen, and Ryan Flitton all took places in the starting line-up with Joe Butler and Jacob Fenton dropping to the bench while captain Charlie Ward began his three-match suspension for a red card picked up last weekend at Newark. Heather meanwhile were looking to pull themselves out of the relegation zone for the first time this season and they made four changes from the side that were defeated 3-1 at home to Wolverhampton Casuals in the FA Vase last Saturday. Max-Emilios Angelides, Jack Henchcliffe, James Neale and Jermaine Thompson all dropped out with Kal Moore, Derry Creighton, Elias McIntosh, and Jack Coles coming in.

Neither side began the first half with much in the way of clear-cut chances with Heather belying their lowly league position to cause some problems for the home side with some neat attacking interplay. The first real opportunity of note did however fall to the home side when, after 10 minutes, the ball fell to Tom Ward on the edge of the box with his powerful effort flying straight across goal and just wide of the far post. Next to try his luck for the Greens was the lively Rushen when he broke free and found space in the box before seeing his effort palmed well away by Tom Allsopp in the Heather goal. Rushen was then involved again 10 minutes later when his knock-on from a corner found the feet of Akeel Francis who just couldn’t sort his feet out properly and could only poke his effort wide of the mark.

The game then came to life with less than 10 minutes of the first half remaining when Allsopp hauled down Akeel Francis after the winger had tried to round the keeper. Referee Amy Barber initially sent Allsopp off but as the keeper was heading down the tunnel - he was suddenly called back - after deliberation with her assistant, she overturned the decision to dismiss him. Allsopp dusted himself down and produced a brilliant double save to deny Francis initially from the penalty itself and then from the rebound, but he was helpless to stop Ryan Rushen bundling the ball home at the third attempt.

The momentum of the game changed noticeably from this point and the Greens became dominant. Allsopp was down quickly again in first half stoppage time to deny Rodrigo Goncalves who’d been poked in by Rushen. He was then on hand again to tip Tom Ward’s cross/shot onto the bar and out of play. From the resulting corner though the Greens did grab a second goal before the break when Joe Smith broke free and headed the ball beyond the despairing dive of Allsopp.

The Greens dominance of the contest continued into the second half with the home side enjoying much of the territory and possession. Allsopp was back in action again - thwarting Akeel Francis after he’d been sent through by Rushen. The Saints did respond though and manufactured a first chance of their own when Jordon Godfrey’s freekick fell to Kane Auld in the box, but he scuffed his effort wide of the mark. Just after the hour though the Greens extinguished any slim hopes of a Heather comeback when Ryan Flitton – making his first appearance of the campaign – delivered a wicked corner that was bundled over the line once again by Ryan Rushen. Jacob Fenton went close next after replacing Rodrigo on the hour, he was one-on-one with Allsopp, but Auld caught him in the nick of time and put in a wonderful last-ditch tackle to prevent the shot.

At the other end, September player of the month Liam Flitton was called into action when he was required to be behind Godfrey’s powerful free kick from distance before Ryan Rushen slid through Jacob Fenton who stung the palms of the impressive Allsopp. The game then settled down with the home side enjoying plenty of the ball – this spell was punctured though when debutant Jonny Nyantou was sent through one-on-one, and he finished with aplomb and calmness past an onrushing Allsopp to round off the scoring.

Assistant manager Louis Bland was happy with the result but felt the Greens have plenty of room for improvement:

“[It was] comfortable. We’ve scored four goals and kept a clean sheet – happy days. But we’re not happy with the overall performance of the lads.” Louis explained. “It’s a bit down in the dressing room because the lads feel we can be miles better. But if we need to be miles better and we’re still winning 4-0 then it’s a good place to be.”

Bland was wary that the Greens will need to raise performance levels ahead of Wednesday night’s Lincolnshire derby with Skegness Town:

“If we play like that on Wednesday, Skegness will beat us. The first 15 minutes we played against them [in August] was probably the best team I’ve seen all season for a 15-minute spell, they were unbelievable.”

The Greens will now look forward to that Lincolnshire derby with Skegness Town and aim to claim a first league double of the season, following a 3-2 victory on the coast in August – kick-off is at 7.45PM. Look out for match details this week on our social media channels!

Words: Oliver Atkin