Pre-season friendly
The Scholars
Tuesday, 27th July 2004, 7.45pm
It's hard work for Gresley
As well as working out who to trim from his side manager Gary Norton has to try work out how to prevent his side from giving away 'soft' goals.
Another defensive lapse allowed Chasetown to grab an equaliser in a match punctuated by substitutions on both sides.
Midland Alliance Chasetown worked hard giving Gresley a harder than expected run out.
They showed they were up for the game by putting in two decent attempts on goal within the first 10 minutes, Dale Belford collecting a shot from Gareth Horler and minutes later Jamie Cunnington flashing a ball across the goal with no-one available to get a touch on the ball.
Gresley first attempt of any note came on 19 minutes when Aaron O'Connor's shot was well saved by home keeper Simon Bryan.
Belford had to be alert to save a James Carvey header on 25 minutes from a good corner from Cunnington.
Gresley took the lead on the half hour when Liam Hebbered beat his markers to get into the area before being clumsily tripped by Chris Slater. O'Connor scoring from the spot although the keeper managed to get a hand to the ball.
Triallist Dominic Reece was denied by Bryan on 33 minutes with O'Connor going close 5 minutes later.
On 41 minutes Chasetown grabbed an equaliser with the help of some wayward defending. A cross from the left by Neil Aughton found Shaun Bradbury in acres of space and his header beat Belford.
Both managers made four changes after the break and it was one of them, Leon Doughty on for Karl Payne, who made a chance but his blistering shot was well saved.
On 65 minutes triallist Chris Busby almost grabbed Gresley the lead when he connected with Nathan Tates left wing cross but his header cannoned off the bar with the keeper well beaten.
Tate himself tested Bryan with a thunderous shot on 79 minutes but the keeper did well to get down to his right to push the ball away.
With the game coming to an end Justin Rowe made a terrific run down the right before unleashing a shot that was only inches over the bar.
Manager's View
"It was a disappointing performance. It doesn't help with the number of players on show at the moment. We are not going to get a settled shape and pattern of play. But, having said that, the players we're looking at, those on the fringes and those who are trialling with us are good players but there were times when we looked lost tonight.
"These players should know the basics of what to do but we did do a little better in the second half - overall it was a decent workout for the players involved. In fairness we've created a fair few chances and their keeper was by far the busier and made some very good saves - on another day it could have been 3 or 4 - 1. I was looking to have gone on and build from Saturday and impose ourselves on the game.
"But they've worked very, very hard. They are a nice tidy little outfit with some very good players and they made it difficult for us. Credit to them - we are not going to come here and have it all our own way. It's a short, sharp reminder that you can play well one day and in trouble the next so we've a lot of work to do around the tactic board and on the training pitch.
"I was very disappointed with the goal we conceded. It's been the theme of this pre-season - cheap goals and I'm not happy with our defensive performance again. I'm not too concerned as we have a key player missing from that area, but we still have a lot of work to do."
