UniBond League Division One
Christchurch Meadow, Belper
Saturday, 13th November 2004, 3.00pm
Dodd nails the Nailers
The form book goes out the window in derby games or so they say. Belper had lost their last three league games and two cup games and Gresley were sitting in third position in the league and had won their last three cup games. So, on paper an away win looked odds on. But, as everyone knows, football is not played on paper.
This was a close encounter in the end but Gresley should have had the game sewed up by the half time break.
Gresley had a dream start when, after just 8 minutes, they went into the lead. Aaron O'Conner made good headway down the right before firing in a low cross into the box where Ashley Dodd was waiting to slip the ball past Belper's veteran keeper Steve Cherry and into the net.
Four minutes later a bizarre piece of flagging gave an offside decision when none existed denying Gresley a penalty that the referee gave before changing his mind in favour of his assistant.
On 15 minutes a free kick taken by Matt K Smith found the head of Matt Smith but his downward header somehow bounced over the bar.
Gresley were making all the running with Belper rarely venturing into the visitors' half let alone making any clear cut chances.
Emeka Ejiofor almost doubled Gresley's advantage on 18 minutes when he ran onto Seam Gummer's through ball before lifting the ball over the head of the advancing Cherry but was unlucky to see the ball land on the top netting.
Jamie Barrett had two good chances in the space of five minutes but his first shot was blocked and his chip shot went agonisingly past the post.
On 33 minutes O'Connor found himself through on goal but screwed his shot wide of the mark and on the half time whistle his mazy run into the box ended with his shot shaving the post.
Gresley came out looking to 'kill' the game off and it looked like it would not take long to achieve when on 55 minutes O'Connor fired a goal bound shot that Chris Peet managed to get a touch on directing the ball away for a corner.
Five minutes later Cherry allowed a shot from O'Connor to bounce off his chest into the path of Ejiofor but the striker could not capitalise on the mistake putting his header over the bar.
To the credit of the home side they saw that Gresley were not having the best of luck in front of goal and as the second half wore on they increased in confidence and started to apply pressure on the Gresley defence as the visitors sat back and in the end were unlucky not to have grabbed a share of the spoils.
On 73 minutes Jason Maxwell made space for himself before hitting a vicious shot that dipped dangerously close to the net leaving Gresley keeper Gavin Saxby stranded.
With four minutes left on the clock substitute Michael Reynolds, in acres of space on the right, received the ball before sending a shot that flew across the area missing the far post by inches.
Manager's View
"I don't think we were at our best especially in the second half. In the first half I felt the players responded to what I asked for in terms of what I'd seen in the last two or three games. We were a little bit off it tempo wise, work rate on the ball and work rate off the ball and the players responded to it.
"In fairness we could have had the game wrapped up by half time. We got a nice early goal that gave us a foothold in the game and went on to have an awarded penalty turned down because of a dubious off side. For the life of me I can't see how that was offside. Then we had two or three opportunities that could have put us two or three goals up at half time.
"I said to the players at halftime that we were one-nil up and to keep it going and I'm sure other opportunities would come, But, Belper responded second half and they chucked everything at us and I said to Gary after the match that maybe they deserved a point.
"We were resolute and we dug in and late on we caused our own problems by giving the ball away and putting ourselves under pressure when maybe we could have done different things with the ball. We were making wrong decisions at the wrong time and the last ten or fifteen minutes were a little more scary than they should have been.
"Earlier in the season when we've been in a similar position we've killed games and controlled games. We made some chances when we broke away but I'm just relieved to get three points and another clean sheet.
"Belper didn't create any clear cut chances in the second half but they had a lot of possession and pressure. The longer the game went on Micky Lyons he had more of an impact and I thought if anything was going to come it would come through him. He did very well for them in the second half.
"We rode our luck a little in the second half but if we had taken our chances in the first it would have been a lot more comfortable.
"I brought Chris Gray on as I felt Emeka had run out of steam a little bit. The front two were superb in the first half and they did exactly what I asked of them. As the second half went on I thought Emeka looked a little tired so I put Chris on. He put himself about a bit but he looks off the pace at the moment but he will settle. He's flying at training but it's difficult to come on as sub for fifteen or twenty minutes when you are in a game like that but what he did he did well for us.
"With Gary White and Jamie Hood missing I brought in Andy Simpson who's been impeccable at centre half against his old club, and Jimmy Turner who played at left back was fantastic - everyone at the back deserves a mention today."
