The Great Pres-cape for Heys, led by Hutchy and Lowe - feature article
Wed 23rd April 2025 | Prestwich Heys | By Jay Cooper
There are plenty of Great Escape stories throughout the annuls of footballing history. Carlisle United keeping their place in League Two in 1999 thanks to a late goal by on-loan goalkeeper Jimmy Glass; West Bromwich Albion in the Premier League in 2005, starting the final day bottom of the table and surviving; or even Leicester City in the Prem in 2015, winning seven from nine in their run-in and going on to win the title the next year. And in 2024/25, you’d need to look no further than the NWCFL Premier Division.
Last season, Prestwich Heys were enjoying their best season ever as a part of the English Football Pyramid. Under the stewardship of Lee O’Brien and James Hampson, the club managed an 8th placed finish in the Premier Division, in only their third ever season playing at this level.
Whilst in 2022/23 they’d managed a 7th placed finish, their points tally was much less than what was achieved in 2023/24, and it was only goal difference that kept them from making an appearance in the play-offs.
Curiously, before the final game of the season, it was announced that the managerial duo would be departing the club after the season was concluded. This would mean that Prestwich Heys would have to make a tough decision over the summer as to who could follow their most successful managers in the club’s history.
In the end, club veteran Russell Saunders was given the job of carrying this cross, in his first ever managerial role. It was a decision made with good intentions, but the club quickly found out that replicating the successes and promotion hopes of the prior campaign would not come easy.
In their first eight league matches of 2024/25 which took them to the end of August, Heys won just twice – both times against eventual fellow relegation candidates South Liverpool and Squires Gate – and lost five.
A bad start if there ever was one, but things would only get worse as summer became autumn. Heys began September with a 3-1 midweek defeat at home to FC Isle of Man, and that match would be the beginning of an 18-match winless streak in the league. That’s EIGHTEEN matches straight without a win, and a whopping 16 of those matches ended in defeat for the M45 side.
It was during this run that the club higher-ups decided the Saunders experiment wasn’t working. The manager was relieved of his duties on October 13th, and later humbly admitted on X (formerly twitter) that his time in charge wasn’t good enough and apologised to the fans. By all accounts, the club and fanbase still has a very healthy appreciation for Russell, despite this endeavour.
The big question then became, who would take on the job of digging the club out of the hole they had found themselves in? Enter, former assistant gaffer Ryan Hutchinson, and his second, Chris Lowe – both of whom were kind enough to speak with me about their roles last week.
Ryan: We’ve only been here since October, but the fans have been there through the struggle more than we have, because they’ve been here from the start of the season… …with the calibre of the group of lads that we've got at this club, we knew we had a chance of winning in our games, and we wanted to prove we can compete with the top teams in this division.
Chris: When we came into this job, we were written off. If you want to be a winner, like me and Hutchy do, and the rest of the management team, and the lads we brought in, you need to turn that into positive energy, and it fuels you to prove people wrong.
Ryan and Chris’ start to life at the Heys helm didn’t immediately bring the bounce they would’ve hoped for. Despite earning their first league point for Heys in only their second match, a 2-2 draw with West Didsbury and Chorlton, they would have to wait until the weekend before Christmas for their first league win – a 2-1 defeat of Longridge Town.
The streak was broken, but a lot of changes were necessary to get there. With the arrival of the new managers in mid-October, there were a handful of new (and old) faces on the field as well. Attacking midfielder Alfie Belcher and right-sided utility man Max Bardsley-Rowe were the first of a raft of imports to the club, and the exports would come just as thick and fast. By the end of the year, 20 players had joined the club, and 25 had left, with only four faces remaining in the Hutchinson and Lowe squad that were there under Saunders.
All of this chopping and changing came just in time for a six-pointer on the first weekend of the new year – a home match with Squires Gate, who were third-bottom in the table, ahead of only Colne and Prestwich Heys. By the time Heys beat Longridge, they were eight points behind Colne just above them, and a massive 13 behind Gate.
The Gate game was exactly the launching pad that Heys were looking for – Connor Martin, Thomas Woodward and Bryson Appleton all scored in a 3-0 victory, and the gap at that time between the club and safety was reduced to seven points.
Following that important three points, Heys looked like a totally new team, winning four of their next five league matches and only drawing with the likes of Pilkington and FC Isle of Man throughout late winter because of very late goal concessions.
This mini-revival had dragged the club to within touching distance of new-ish second-bottom side Squires Gate, and there was only a small step from there to Colne in the safety places. There were just five points between these three sides in this relegation battle when Heys met Colne at the latter’s Haffners Stadium on March 22nd, knowing a win would potentially take them within one more win of getting above the dotted line.
Heys came to play at Colne, with Martin, Appleton and Belcher all bagging before the break in a first-half onslaught that eventually saw Hutchinson and Lowe’s men win 3-1. With that result, Heys got themselves off the foot of the division for the first time in 2025, and just in time too, as there were only four league games remaining.
In their next game, they hosted promotion-chasing Ramsbottom United at the Adie Moran Park, and got off on the right foot, with youngster Takura Sambizi scoring within two minutes. The score of the game was 1-1 going into added time, but a 97th minute Rammy winner provided by Luke Barlow threatened to halt the momentum that Heys were trying to gather.
Confidence looked further damaged throughout the first hour of their third-to-last league game of the season, away at Barnoldswick Town. Heys were 2-0 down with 20 minutes to play and few gave them a chance at taking anything from the match, but Sambizi spearheaded a late comeback, capped off by a Woodward goal in the 92nd minute. This last goal sealed a 3-2 victory and FINALLY saw the club creep out of the bottom two on goal difference.
Ahead of their final home game of the season, Colne fell to a defeat on April 11th. With that, it was do or die for Prestwich Heys. A win against fellow Manchester side Irlam on the 12th would all but secure safety in the NWCFL Premier Division, after previously being 13 points adrift of that target.
Irlam had been chasing the play-off places for the majority of the season, so a win against them would be further proof of what the management team had said upon their arrival – that Heys could compete with the top teams in the division.
After a tense first half at the Adie Moran Park on the penultimate matchday of the campaign, Lee Grimshaw broke the deadlock for Heys after 50 minutes, only for Irlam to instantly reply. The home side kept knocking, and they finally found some luck when Irlam goalkeeper Elliot Wynne brought down Sambizi in the penalty area with 10 minutes left.
Up stepped Max Bardsley-Rowe – one of the first new faces at the club following the new gaffers’ arrivals in October – to score from the spot, and Heys held on for one of the most important wins in the club’s recent history. This left them three points clear of the drop, with a superior goal difference to Colne, and with only one game left to play.
Speaking on that final home game of the campaign, Chris Lowe said that “we’ve had some testing moments, and we've questioned ourselves. But we've tried our hardest, and, more importantly, the lads, week in and week out, have given it their all.
“And we owe it to these players. They've really dug in, and they've got this club in the position now where we can start being excited.
“When we came in, some of the fans were probably already writing it off, amongst a lot of other people. And it’s great to be able to give them something to cheer about now.
“That was our main focus in this game (against Irlam) - let's give these fans what they deserve! Something to cheer about in our last home game, and the lads didn't fault us.
Ryan Hutchinson developed on that, saying “Irlam are a great team. They’re powerful, they've got quick players. They had quality on the pitch and on the bench against us.
“We knew it was going to be tough. We came into this game knowing it was going to be difficult, but with the calibre of this group of lads we've got, we knew we had a good chance of winning.
“We’ve proven that we can compete with the top teams in this division. When you look at the games we've won and the stats for us, since we've come in, we're probably a mid-table team.
“We don't want to get carried away, but we were confident, momentum was with us, and the lads have not let us down.”
In what might’ve been a beautiful full-circle moment on another day, Heys travelled to Longridge in their season’s curtain closer – the reverse fixture of Hutchinson and Lowe’s first wins in charge of the club. They lost that match 1-0, thanks in part to an incredible performance by Ridge’s goalkeeper on the day, Kier Barry.
Colne also won in their season’s swansong, but it mattered little in the relegation battle. Heys’ much better goal difference saw them officially survive in the Premier Division, despite them having once been so far from that goal.
Taking one last look at a job that took some serious grit to be well done, Ryan Hutchinson said “it's certainly had its ups and downs, that's for sure. Especially the early weeks, or the early bumps, I should say.
“I’ve said to our players so many times this season that we literally shouldn't have been where we were. We shouldn't have. I think there's a few managers like that, as well. The Colne manager (Andy Harrison) – I’ve listened to a few interviews of his, and they're in the same bracket really.
“They shouldn't be where they are, and neither should we. But we are where we are, and that's it. And we've rallied a group of players together to try and get us out of this mess. And at the end of the day, we have.”
It’s a situation that both Heys and Colne will hope that they won’t find themselves in again anytime soon. For Colne, now that the season is over, it is a waiting game as to whether or not they will be awarded with a reprieve – that final day victory over Abbey Hey may yet go a long way.
But for Prestwich Heys, despite looking so desperately destined to drop back to the First Division North in December, the 2025/26 season will be their fifth straight season at their highest ever level of the English football pyramid, and they have battled to earn that right.
The Great Pres-cape for Heys, led by Hutchy and Lowe - feature article
Wed 23rd April 2025 | Prestwich Heys
By Jay Cooper
There are plenty of Great Escape stories throughout the annuls of footballing history. Carlisle United keeping their place in League Two in 1999 thanks to a late goal by on-loan goalkeeper Jimmy Glass; West Bromwich Albion in the Premier League in 2005, starting the final day bottom of the table and surviving; or even Leicester City in the Prem in 2015, winning seven from nine in their run-in and going on to win the title the next year. And in 2024/25, you’d need to look no further than the NWCFL Premier Division.
Last season, Prestwich Heys were enjoying their best season ever as a part of the English Football Pyramid. Under the stewardship of Lee O’Brien and James Hampson, the club managed an 8th placed finish in the Premier Division, in only their third ever season playing at this level.
Whilst in 2022/23 they’d managed a 7th placed finish, their points tally was much less than what was achieved in 2023/24, and it was only goal difference that kept them from making an appearance in the play-offs.
Curiously, before the final game of the season, it was announced that the managerial duo would be departing the club after the season was concluded. This would mean that Prestwich Heys would have to make a tough decision over the summer as to who could follow their most successful managers in the club’s history.
In the end, club veteran Russell Saunders was given the job of carrying this cross, in his first ever managerial role. It was a decision made with good intentions, but the club quickly found out that replicating the successes and promotion hopes of the prior campaign would not come easy.
In their first eight league matches of 2024/25 which took them to the end of August, Heys won just twice – both times against eventual fellow relegation candidates South Liverpool and Squires Gate – and lost five.
A bad start if there ever was one, but things would only get worse as summer became autumn. Heys began September with a 3-1 midweek defeat at home to FC Isle of Man, and that match would be the beginning of an 18-match winless streak in the league. That’s EIGHTEEN matches straight without a win, and a whopping 16 of those matches ended in defeat for the M45 side.
It was during this run that the club higher-ups decided the Saunders experiment wasn’t working. The manager was relieved of his duties on October 13th, and later humbly admitted on X (formerly twitter) that his time in charge wasn’t good enough and apologised to the fans. By all accounts, the club and fanbase still has a very healthy appreciation for Russell, despite this endeavour.
The big question then became, who would take on the job of digging the club out of the hole they had found themselves in? Enter, former assistant gaffer Ryan Hutchinson, and his second, Chris Lowe – both of whom were kind enough to speak with me about their roles last week.
Ryan: We’ve only been here since October, but the fans have been there through the struggle more than we have, because they’ve been here from the start of the season… …with the calibre of the group of lads that we've got at this club, we knew we had a chance of winning in our games, and we wanted to prove we can compete with the top teams in this division.
Chris: When we came into this job, we were written off. If you want to be a winner, like me and Hutchy do, and the rest of the management team, and the lads we brought in, you need to turn that into positive energy, and it fuels you to prove people wrong.
Ryan and Chris’ start to life at the Heys helm didn’t immediately bring the bounce they would’ve hoped for. Despite earning their first league point for Heys in only their second match, a 2-2 draw with West Didsbury and Chorlton, they would have to wait until the weekend before Christmas for their first league win – a 2-1 defeat of Longridge Town.
The streak was broken, but a lot of changes were necessary to get there. With the arrival of the new managers in mid-October, there were a handful of new (and old) faces on the field as well. Attacking midfielder Alfie Belcher and right-sided utility man Max Bardsley-Rowe were the first of a raft of imports to the club, and the exports would come just as thick and fast. By the end of the year, 20 players had joined the club, and 25 had left, with only four faces remaining in the Hutchinson and Lowe squad that were there under Saunders.
All of this chopping and changing came just in time for a six-pointer on the first weekend of the new year – a home match with Squires Gate, who were third-bottom in the table, ahead of only Colne and Prestwich Heys. By the time Heys beat Longridge, they were eight points behind Colne just above them, and a massive 13 behind Gate.
The Gate game was exactly the launching pad that Heys were looking for – Connor Martin, Thomas Woodward and Bryson Appleton all scored in a 3-0 victory, and the gap at that time between the club and safety was reduced to seven points.
Following that important three points, Heys looked like a totally new team, winning four of their next five league matches and only drawing with the likes of Pilkington and FC Isle of Man throughout late winter because of very late goal concessions.
This mini-revival had dragged the club to within touching distance of new-ish second-bottom side Squires Gate, and there was only a small step from there to Colne in the safety places. There were just five points between these three sides in this relegation battle when Heys met Colne at the latter’s Haffners Stadium on March 22nd, knowing a win would potentially take them within one more win of getting above the dotted line.
Heys came to play at Colne, with Martin, Appleton and Belcher all bagging before the break in a first-half onslaught that eventually saw Hutchinson and Lowe’s men win 3-1. With that result, Heys got themselves off the foot of the division for the first time in 2025, and just in time too, as there were only four league games remaining.
In their next game, they hosted promotion-chasing Ramsbottom United at the Adie Moran Park, and got off on the right foot, with youngster Takura Sambizi scoring within two minutes. The score of the game was 1-1 going into added time, but a 97th minute Rammy winner provided by Luke Barlow threatened to halt the momentum that Heys were trying to gather.
Confidence looked further damaged throughout the first hour of their third-to-last league game of the season, away at Barnoldswick Town. Heys were 2-0 down with 20 minutes to play and few gave them a chance at taking anything from the match, but Sambizi spearheaded a late comeback, capped off by a Woodward goal in the 92nd minute. This last goal sealed a 3-2 victory and FINALLY saw the club creep out of the bottom two on goal difference.
Ahead of their final home game of the season, Colne fell to a defeat on April 11th. With that, it was do or die for Prestwich Heys. A win against fellow Manchester side Irlam on the 12th would all but secure safety in the NWCFL Premier Division, after previously being 13 points adrift of that target.
Irlam had been chasing the play-off places for the majority of the season, so a win against them would be further proof of what the management team had said upon their arrival – that Heys could compete with the top teams in the division.
After a tense first half at the Adie Moran Park on the penultimate matchday of the campaign, Lee Grimshaw broke the deadlock for Heys after 50 minutes, only for Irlam to instantly reply. The home side kept knocking, and they finally found some luck when Irlam goalkeeper Elliot Wynne brought down Sambizi in the penalty area with 10 minutes left.
Up stepped Max Bardsley-Rowe – one of the first new faces at the club following the new gaffers’ arrivals in October – to score from the spot, and Heys held on for one of the most important wins in the club’s recent history. This left them three points clear of the drop, with a superior goal difference to Colne, and with only one game left to play.
Speaking on that final home game of the campaign, Chris Lowe said that “we’ve had some testing moments, and we've questioned ourselves. But we've tried our hardest, and, more importantly, the lads, week in and week out, have given it their all.
“And we owe it to these players. They've really dug in, and they've got this club in the position now where we can start being excited.
“When we came in, some of the fans were probably already writing it off, amongst a lot of other people. And it’s great to be able to give them something to cheer about now.
“That was our main focus in this game (against Irlam) - let's give these fans what they deserve! Something to cheer about in our last home game, and the lads didn't fault us.
Ryan Hutchinson developed on that, saying “Irlam are a great team. They’re powerful, they've got quick players. They had quality on the pitch and on the bench against us.
“We knew it was going to be tough. We came into this game knowing it was going to be difficult, but with the calibre of this group of lads we've got, we knew we had a good chance of winning.
“We’ve proven that we can compete with the top teams in this division. When you look at the games we've won and the stats for us, since we've come in, we're probably a mid-table team.
“We don't want to get carried away, but we were confident, momentum was with us, and the lads have not let us down.”
In what might’ve been a beautiful full-circle moment on another day, Heys travelled to Longridge in their season’s curtain closer – the reverse fixture of Hutchinson and Lowe’s first wins in charge of the club. They lost that match 1-0, thanks in part to an incredible performance by Ridge’s goalkeeper on the day, Kier Barry.
Colne also won in their season’s swansong, but it mattered little in the relegation battle. Heys’ much better goal difference saw them officially survive in the Premier Division, despite them having once been so far from that goal.
Taking one last look at a job that took some serious grit to be well done, Ryan Hutchinson said “it's certainly had its ups and downs, that's for sure. Especially the early weeks, or the early bumps, I should say.
“I’ve said to our players so many times this season that we literally shouldn't have been where we were. We shouldn't have. I think there's a few managers like that, as well. The Colne manager (Andy Harrison) – I’ve listened to a few interviews of his, and they're in the same bracket really.
“They shouldn't be where they are, and neither should we. But we are where we are, and that's it. And we've rallied a group of players together to try and get us out of this mess. And at the end of the day, we have.”
It’s a situation that both Heys and Colne will hope that they won’t find themselves in again anytime soon. For Colne, now that the season is over, it is a waiting game as to whether or not they will be awarded with a reprieve – that final day victory over Abbey Hey may yet go a long way.
But for Prestwich Heys, despite looking so desperately destined to drop back to the First Division North in December, the 2025/26 season will be their fifth straight season at their highest ever level of the English football pyramid, and they have battled to earn that right.
