Gresley Rovers vs Stapenhill
Match in the mist – Burton Mail
Fog dropped an early curtain on the Moat Ground last night – just as Stapenhill were threatening a spectacular revival.
Four goals down after 47 minutes, the Swans seemed set to sink without trace with Gresley firmly in control.
But as proceedings were inexorably swallowed in a thickening blanket of gloom, two goals in little over a minute set up an exciting finale that – alas – was never enacted.
With the game reduced to a meaningless shadow theatre Walton referee took the only sensible course and relieved an encouraging 238 crowd of its misery after an hour.
Both managers though declared the encounter a useful work-out afterwards.
Swans supremo Mick Allsopp will have his side’s defensive frailties exposed without having to pay a price in league points.
The Scoreline Combination side – shorn of five regulars by injury and suspension and with Rovers reserve striker Cec Wain leading their front line – were clinically dissected by reshuffled Rovers in the first half.
Michael Guest, making a strong claim for the right back’s shirt in the absence of John Bottomley, set up Rovers’ opener, Andy Maddocks sliding in his incisive cross on 15 minutes.
Then Gil Land, in a running midfield role, avoided the attentions of Stapenhill’s defence to convert Mark Bromley’s towering left wing cross with ease.
And when Astley, in typically cavalier style, weaved upfield to despatch the goal of the game, a goal avalanche seemed imminent.
Indeed, had Maddocks displayed more finesse in the six yard box with two golden openings it could have been five by the break.
It was four, two minutes after, when defender Ian Pearsall and keeper Gary Taylor conspired to lose the ball between them, allowing Maddocks a simple chance.
An alleged push by Martin Haskins on Wain gave Stapenhill a rather charitable penalty, despatched with typical decisiveness by Clive Arthur, before Wain disappeared into the fog to claim the Swans second. By then, the game had become a farce as a spectator event.
Gresley Rovers (3) 4
Stapenhill (0) 2
(Abandoned after 60mins due to fog)
Scorers: Maddocks 15, 47, Land 22, Astley 35, (Gresley Rovers); Arthur 52 (pen), Wain 54 (Stapenhill).
Gresley Rovers: Aston, Guest, Bromley (Thompson 55), Denby (Enion 45), Haskins, Astley, Land, Norton, Maddocks, Beresford, Lovell (Mabel 45).
Stapenhill: Taylor, Arthur, Cooper, Osbourne, Pearsall, Caulton, T Coppinger, Gough (D Coppinger 45), Wain, Llewellyn, Royall. Subs not used: Marler, Metcalfe.
Referee: G Stones (Walton).
Attendance: 238
