PREVIEW | KIMBERLEY MINERS WELFARE VS HEANOR TOWN

THE MINERS LOOK TO BUILD ON SATURDAY’S GOOD PERFORMANCE IN A THIRD LOCAL DERBY IN THREE WEEKS

UP NEXT, the miners welcome Heanor Town to the Stade Du Stag in what will be a highly anticipated encounter, due to the fact that there are two ex-Kimberley players on the Heanor books in Sam Brown and Aaron Coyle.

After a heavy defeat on bank holiday Monday, managers Ant Ward and Andy Kuchta rang the changes in search of a reaction from Kimberley as they faced Skegness Town on Saturday. While the outcome was not quite what was hoped for, a much better performance saw the hosts run their seaside opposition close, while conceding a single goal. With multiple offside decisions going against the miners, they will feel that they could quite easily have taken all three points on the day after a strong performance.

Heanor Town will come to the Stag on the back of a narrow 1–0 home defeat to neighbours, step 3 side Ilkeston Town in an FA cup qualifying round match at the weekend. L’Varn Brandy scoring the only goal of the game towards the end of the first half saw Ilkeston through to the next round, where they will face Hereford. Heanor will take a lot from the match after giving a good account of themselves.

PREVIOUS MEETINGS

In the last game of last season, Kimberley travelled to Heanor for a second of two local derbies to end the season. An exciting match saw Heanor take the lead after just two minutes through Jamie Sleigh. Josh Mundell equalised just four minutes later for the Miners. Keaton August completed a twelve minute flurry as Heanor regained the lead, only for them to extend it to 3-1 on twenty minutes through Josh Craddock. Aaron Coyle, now of Heanor got a goal back for Kimberley just after the break before Sacha Markelic restored the two goal cushion just ten minutes later. Coyle scored again for Kimberley five minutes from the end to set up a tense finish to the game. 4-3 to Heanor.

The earlier fixture of last season came way back in September at the Stag Ground. A Jordan Sowerby goal was enough to take the points for the Miners on that occasion.

A LITTLE ABOUT THE OPPOSITION

Heanor Town FC was established in 1883 in a meeting at the Rays Arms Hotel. In 1890 they were founder members of the Midland Amateur Alliance. The club reached the first round of the FA Cup in 1891–92, losing 4–1 at Aston Villa. When the league folded in 1893 they joined the Derbyshire Senior League, winning it at the first attempt, also reaching the first round of the FA Cup again, this time losing 1–0 at Nottingham Forest. The club then moved up to the Midland League, where they played for three seasons, with another FA Cup first round appearance in 1896–97 ending with a 1–0 defeat to Southampton St Mary's in a replay.

Fast forward a few years and in 2008, Heanor were founder members of the East Midlands Counties League. They were league champions in 2011–12, earning promotion to the Premier Division of the Northern Counties East League. After three seasons back in the league, the club were transferred to the Premier Division of the new Midland League in 2014.[3] At the end of the 2017–18 season they took voluntary demotion to the East Midlands Counties League despite finishing in mid-table. In 2021 the club were promoted to the Premier Division North of the United Counties League based on their results in the abandoned 2019–20 and 2020–21 seasons.

Honours
Central Alliance
Division One North champions 1956–57, 1957–58
Central Combination
Champions 1933–34
Derbyshire Senior League
Champions 1893–94
East Midlands Counties League
Champions 2011–12
Central Midlands League
Supreme Division champions 1994–95, 1996–97
League Cup winners 2006–07
Derbyshire Senior Cup
Winners 1892–93, 1893–94, 1965–66, 1966–67, 1967–68, 1968–69, 1970–71, 1978–79

FINALLY

With local rivalry on the line, both sides will want to taste victory. Kimberley desperately need to get some points on the board, while Heanor will look to build on their FA Cup performance and try to push up the table while they still have games in hand to come into the equation.

We have the Travelling Taverna on site to provide food for supporters for this match. Come and give them a look as they are well known in the area for serving fantastic food.

Admission prices are as follows

Adults £7
Concessions £4

Please come along and support the lads