Gresley Rovers vs Tipton Town
Denby does the trick for Rovers – Dave Hackett – Burton Mail
When Richard Denby plays well Gresley Rovers invariably do.
With the Rovers skipper close to his inimitable best, scoring his first hat trick since arriving at the Moat Ground, it would have needed far sterner opposition than Tipton to contain a rampant Gresley outfit.
As Rovers boss Frank Northwood was quick to point out afterwards: “It was a very good all round team effort on a very difficult surface.”
It didn’t take the Moatmen long to expose the gulf in class between the two sides. While it is easy to say that Gresley should win comfortably against such modest opposition one should not underestimate the way in which they clinically completed their mission.
Keeper Keith Barrington who couldn’t be faulted for any of the nine goals and had already thwarted Steve Astley and Denby before Gresley broke the visitors plucky resistance on 16 minutes.
The keeper had blocked a shot from Tracey Norton, but, as the ball broke loose Michael Guest coolly sidefooted it home from just inside the box.
Within ninety seconds Denby brought further misery to the visitors with a left foot shot that made Barrington’s despairing dive look no more than a token gesture.
Rovers third goal owed much to Acklam who slipped marker Darren Hall before supplying a deep left wing cross for Kieron Smith to convert from close in.
Apart from one comfortable save from Tony Kelford’s free kick Bob Aston spent most of the game in a spectating capacity and will surely have few more duty free games as he kept his ninth clean sheet of the season.
Barrington’s defence let him down again when Acklam was left unattended at the far post to nod home Denby’s corner.
The goal visibly wilted the men from the Black Country and as the heavy pitch took its Gresley added another five goals at regular intervals.
In the 64th minute Astley’s shot flew in off Dean Whitehouse’s shoulder leaving Barrington totally wrong footed.
On 67 minutes Tracey Norton did the spadework for Denby who looked up, took aim, and buried a shot in the bottom left hand corner.
Nine minutes later Acklam smacked a shot into the roof of the net after Astley had turned inside Nicklin’s pass.
Barrington turned over an Adcock effort, but, it was only delaying the inevitable. Nicklin’s right wing corner was not cleared and was punished by Astley’s explosive finish.
Three minutes from time, Tipton’s woe was complete. Denby slipped the ball wide to Adcock who turned inside and cut a return pass back for Denby to fire into the corner of the net.
It was the perfect start to 1990 for Gresley who hope to be celebrating on a bit grander scale come May.
Gresley Rovers (3) 9
Tipton Town (0) 0
Scorers: Guest 16, Denby 18, 67, 87, Smith 42, Acklam 60, 76, Astley 64, 82.
Gresley Rovers: Aston, Bottomley (Nicklin 64), Perry, Denby, Land, Skeemer, Guest (Adcock 64), Norton, Acklam, Smith, Astley.
Tipton Town: Barrington, Hall, Wilde, Moroney, Danks, Mullinder, Harrison, Whitehouse, Powell, Bailey, Kelford. Subs not use: Rowe, Shettlewood.
Gresley man-of-the-match: Richard Denby.
Referee: P J Clark (Kingswinford).
Attendance: 297
