Rocester vs Gresley Rovers
Lovell-y way to beat jinx - Andy Parker - Burton Mail
Gresley finally achieved a West Midlands League victory over Rocester at the Riversfield on Saturday - but inevitably it was a game strewn with incident and controversy on and off the field.
But at the end of the day it was football that talked the loudest and Gresley who triumphed after a ding-dong thriller.
The game centred round lapses at the back with Gresley twice exposing Rocester's lightweight central defence to take the lead and Rocester twice doing likewise to level. Even Neil Lovell's 80th minute winner was down to an unfortunate deflection off the boot of Rovers old boy Paul Fernihough.
Northwood said afterwards: "I thought we deserved to win although I wasn't happy about the goals we conceded," while Beaman confessed: "It was close but we didn't defend well enough to beat them."
Rocester certainly attacked well enough to give Rovers a serious early fright.
With seven minutes gone and the Gresley defence in tatters Richard Owen fired in a 25-yard effort that Bob Aston did well to tip over. Then from John Mayer's corner Aston produced a super double stop to keep out close-range efforts from Mark Shelly and Nigel Mottram.
Rovers' response was to take the lead, Gil Land exploiting a gap at the far post to head home after Richard Denby had curled in a free kick from the right.
Rocester hit back and Craig Walklet and Mayer himself both went close to equalising before the break.
Carl Rathbone broke clear to hit the foot of a post after the restart before Rocester levelled out of nowhere. Mark Sale almost casually opening up the Gresley defence before sidefooting past Aston.
Denby, cynically tripped by Owen, who earned a booking, wreaked terrible revenge by setting up Paul Acklam to climb above Fernihough and head Gresley in front again before Sale was allowed space and time to prod home Mayer's cross from the left.
A draw might have been a fair result at this stage but there was yet time for Rocester's defensive weakness to be exposed again. John Barry defeated the Romans' attempt to push up to half way and Neil Lovell burst into the penalty area to fire past Mark Deaville - with a little help from the unfortunate Fernihough.
Rocester (0) 2
Gresley Rovers (1) 3
Scorers: Sale 58, 69 (Rocester), Land 12, Acklam 62, Lovell 80 (Gresley Rovers).
Rocester: Deaville, Bottomley, Godfrey, Owen, Croft (Haywood 87), Fernihough, Walklet (M Ede 70), Mayer, Sale, Mottram, Shelley,
Gresley Rovers: Aston, Barry, Dick, Denby, Land, Astley, Weston (Elliott 70), Smith (Beresford 72), Acklam, Rathbone, Lovell.
Gresley man-of-the-match: Carl Rathbone.
Referee: G K Roderick (Castle Bromwich).
Attendance: 330
