Lye Town vs Gresley Rovers
Rovers’ record goes crashing – Andy Parker – Burton Mail
The race for the Banks’s League title took another twist last night as Gresley crashed to defeat at Lye Town.
Rovers’ unbeaten away record was left in tatters after a shocking defensive performance against a fiery Lye side who matched Gresley blow for blow on a pitch reduced to a skating rink by heavy rain.
Gresley boss Frank Northwood had no excuses to offer afterwards.
“We gave away two bad goals in the first half and it was hard after that,” he said. Credit to Lye, they battled hard and deserved to win. It’s shaken us up and it means we’ve got to bounce back and win on Saturday.”
The result adds extra onus on Saturday’s trip to Hinckley Town, where Rovers have yet to get a result in three visits. And Northwood will clearly be hoping for no repeat of last night’s flawed performance.
After an incident-packed opening quarter, in which Steve Astley saw a 20-yard free kick hit the bar and Lye striker Dave Beasley headed a corner against a post, Rovers fell behind after 15 minutes, John Bottomley’s back pass sticking in the mud allowing Mark Wingfield to nip in and whip the ball past Bob Aston.
Gresley battled back and seemed unlucky to be denied a penalty when Kieron Smith escaped down the right, delaying his shot and then going down under Mark Paskin’s challenge.
It looked a dubious challenge from the sidelines, but referee Underwood ignored claims for a spot kick.
Five minutes later, though, more poor defending put Gresley back on level terms. Gil Land was allowed to move unmarked onto Richard Denby’s left wing corner and planted a firm header under the bar from eight yards.
Gresley seemed to be settling to their task now but, with half time looming, they fell behind again. Beasley was unaccountably allowed to turn onto Dave Cole’s long throw from the left and, although his low shot to the near post lacked real pace, it crept through a forest of legs and into the net.
It was a blow from which Gresley were never to recover, despite some frantic second half pressure orchestrated mainly by skipper Richard Denby.
Gresley were inevitably pressing forward when Lye delivered the coup de grace with 15 minutes left. Again Bottomley was the villain, delivering a poor pass as Gresley attempted to play the ball out of defence, and Beasley escaped down the left to deliver a near post cross to where Geoff Wood was the first of two waiting Town players, despatching the ball with a diving header.
Lye Town (1) 3
Gresley Rovers (1) 1
Scorers: Wingfield 14, Beasley 38, Wood 75 (Lye Town); Land 29 (Gresley Rovers).
Lye Town: Crannage, Bradley, Cooper, Wood Weston 85), Paskin, Cartwright, Hadley (Whitehead 85), Wood, Beasley, Wingfield, Cole.
Gresley Rovers: Aston, Bottomley, Dick (Beresford 70), Denby, Land, Astley, Scally (Page 65), Smith, Acklam, Christopher, Lovell.
Gresley man-of-the-match: Richard Denby.
Referee: A Underwood (Redditch).
Attendance: 250
