Swindon Supermarine vs Gresley Rovers
Gresley were within just 2 minutes of grabbing the first point from an opening game since 2000-2001 but fate had other ideas.
Swindon Supermarine have struggled for the past two seasons but have then rallied to fight off relegation in the final few games. However, things seem different this time with the home side looking a much stronger outfit.
And so it proved. Swindon had the better of the first half and got back into the game in the second half just as it seemed Gresley might sneak the points.
It was Gresley who had the best chance of the opening 15 minutes when Chris Gray sent in a fine cross that just evaded both Ian Pitt and Neil Kitching at the far post.
Swindon, who had made all the early running, got their deserved lead on 28 minutes. Gresley defender Matt Smith failed to cut out a run by Chris Copp down the right and his resultant cross was powered home by striker Justin Miller.
Gresley were finding the going difficult for some reason and resorted to putting long balls up the field, which was no good for either striker as the home defence easily dealt with any danger.
However, Gresley were fortunate to draw level on 36 minutes. Gary White was felled just outside the box, and Gray's free kick beat Swindon keeper Tom King and Pitt was on hand to head the ball into the net.
Three minutes later Swindon should have regained the lead. An error by Ian Bluck found Simon Futcher but his cross was too high for Dave Toomey who was waiting in acres of space.
At the half time break, new manager Gary Norton must have chosen the right words because Gresley came out looking like they meant business.
They should have taken the lead within a minute of the re-start when Kitching headed down a White free kick to Bluck. But, embarrassingly, he could only blast his shot over the bar from the edge of the goal area.
Again Gresley had a chance to take the lead when Gray stole the ball off Copp but his shot, that beat King, scrapped the top of the bar.
Liam Hebberd was introduced in place of Kitching and almost made an immediate impact. White played a superb through ball that the youngster control expertly before rounding the keeper and knocking the ball goal wards, but up popped Steve Davies who managed to get back and clear the ball off the line.
Swindon then went close after Greskey keeper Mark Sheils fumbled a free kick but Miller failed to take advantage and put his shot wide.
Sheils was called on into action again on 69 minutes when he did well to hold on to a shot from Giles Harris.
On 75 minutes White put a pass through to substitute Andy Bourne but he put his shot over the bar.
The home side went looking for a winner with both Jamie Blastland, who'd played in some pre-season games at Gresley, and Futcher both going close in the finale stages.
Just as it seemed as the points would be shared, a moment of defensive madness, with only a couple of minutes to go, gave all three points to the home side.
On 88 minutes Swindon were awarded a corner that was hotly disputed and while Gresley were still making their feelings known to the referee Swindon took the corner kick quickly and a pass through to Copp, who was totally unmarked, was dispatched with no difficulty.
Gary's thoughts on the game
We are obviously very disappointed with the result especially after dominating the second half in the way that we did.
Al and I were very disappointed with our first half performance; it was completely unrecognisable from our pre-season games. Our passing was awful, we were a yard or two off the pace all over the pitch and we just couldn't seem to get any sort of rhythm going. We often lumped the ball forward completely bypassing the midfield, sometimes because of a lack of options but often when the options were there we didn't use them. We allowed Swindon to dictate the pace and tempo of the game and we were very lucky to come in at half time at 1-1.
There were people hiding today and that's disappointing after the form we showed in pre-season. We've frozen when it mattered and shot ourselves in the foot. People earned the shirts today on the form and attitude they have showed and some of those people who had done so well during pre-season just didn't do it today.
We have let ourselves down and I feel for the supporters who travelled to the game. We owe them a good performance on Tuesday.
The players seemed anxious and nervous and that stopped them playing the kind of football they are capable of.
We had words at half time and I was delighted with the response and the second half performance, although not quite what I'm after, was much improved.
Over the 90 minutes we did enough for a point and with more conviction in and around the Swindon box could have had all three.
Chance wise in the second half we've had Blucky fire one over from a knock down when he should have buried it, Chris Gray hitting the cross bar and young Liam Hebberd coming on and having an effort cleared off the line.
Defensively, we were caught right at the death and I'm disappointed in the manner of the goal.
It's the first day of the season and coming to places like Swindon, we needed to take something from the game, especially considering we haven't lost to them in 4 meetings.
The squad are very down but we are itching to put things right at the Moat Ground on Tuesday night against Rugby. There is a lot of pressure on us to get something out of that game.
Swindon Supermarine (1) 2
Gresley Rovers (1) 1
Scorers: Miller 28, Copp 88 (Swindon Supermarine); Gray 36 (Gresley Rovers).
Swindon Supermarine: King, Copp, Terry
(Slattery 78), Bennet, McCluskey, Davies, Harris, Gee (Blastland 63), Toomey, Miller (Hawkins 90), Futcher. Subs not used: Hudson, Gill.
Gresley Rovers: Sheils, Bluck, G White, Smith, Cheetham, Slater, Wardle (Bourne 61), Hopkins (Barrett 75), Kitching (Hebberd 64), Pitt, Gray. Subs not used: Alexander, Clarke.
Rovers Star Man: Gary White – tried to get things going.
Referee: M Mackreth (Bristol).
Attendance: 171
