Gresley Rovers vs Burton Albion
Hanks a lot! Andy Parker, Burton Mail
The "Ghost of Christmas Past" returned to haunt Gresley and Burton at the Moat Ground last night.
Chain-rattler in chief was Nottingham referee Frazer Stretton, whose controversial decision to allow two teams to go ahead with their Dr Martens Southern League Cup semi-final, first leg, prompted a return of the frozen scenes of Boxing Day.
Anyone who thought ice sports were restricted to the Lillehammer Winter Olympics this week were wrong. For after Mr Stretton gave the go ahead, deeming the Moat pitch "not dangerous," Rovers and Albion were left to slip and slide through a contest that veered from a frozen farce to an occasional ice spectacular.
Any hopes that the Brewers may have held of a repeat of their 4-0 Yuletide romp were, however, quickly dispelled. Rovers were deprived of top scorer Martin Devaney by flu but were otherwise at full strength and in no mood to offer a meek surrender for a second time.
There was no holding back despite the glassy and rock hard playing surface and that meant, despite Mr Stretton's assurances, a serous risk of injury. Sure enough, Burton lost two players in the first 35 minutes, striker Paul Gretton hobbling off with a twisted ankle on 25 minutes and full back Alan Davies following him 10 minutes later with a gashed shin.
That there were no further serious mishaps is something to be thankful for, for there was little in the way of good football to compensate. Indeed, standing up frequently proved impossible.
To their immense credit, both teams worked hard to serve up some entertainment for the 1,019 crowd, an excellent turnout given the conditions but less than half the number that might have reasonably expected on a decent night.
Albion, carrying on from where they left off in December, were first to threaten, Robbie Briscoe swinging in a free kick from the left and Brian Donnelly making good contact with a shot that Graeme Rigg did well to block.
Then Richard Wardle raised the hopes of the home fans by escaping on the right and firing in a far post cross that asked just too much of the inrushing Tony Marsden.
Richard Denby fired a 25-yard free kick straight into the arms of Nick Goodwin and Darren Grocutt teed up Briscoe for a shot wide after good work by Simon Redfern but these were isolated half chances amid a welter of bustle and blunder.
A moment of true quality was needed to give the game any semblance of shape and in the closing minutes of the first half such a moment arrived, and it was Gresley who provided it.
Denby's pass again released Wardle on the right and this time his cross was to the near post, where Mark Hurst laid the ball into the path of Chris Hanks for a first time shot from eight yards.
Goodwin did remarkably well to half block the shot but the ball was merely diverted onto the crossbar and thence into the net.
Albion, who had been dominating at that point, were stun into retaliation with Steve Nelson squirting a close range effort wide following another Briscoe free kick, and then Briscoe firing in a cross-cum-shot from the left that bounced off the top of Bob Aston's bar.
Two minutes from the break, though, it could have been 2-0 to Gresley with Hanks releasing Hurst and then arriving in the penalty area to receive a return pass and hit the sweetest of chips that beat Goodwin, hit the bar, spun onto a post and then rolled wide.
The near-miss could have proved costly as with the second half 10 minutes old, Burton substitute Peter Howell lifted the ball over Rovers keeper Bob Aston only for Stuart Evans to head off the line.
Howell, marauding along the right, was Burton's main threat and Wardle had to get back to clear after the former Kidderminster man had beaten Rigg. Burton, it was, who were carving out the half chances but the Brewers' last hope of going into next month's second leg with the scores level disappeared along with the back-garden bound ball after Howell fired Adrian Doughty's pass fractionally over with five minutes left.
Gresley Rovers (1) 1
Burton Albion (0) 0
Scorer: Hanks 38
Gresley Rovers: Aston, Elliott, Rigg, Loss, Evans, Stanborough, Wardle (Straw 74), Denby, Hurst (Moore 80), Hanks, Marsden.
Burton Albion: Goodwin, Davies (Doughty 35), Williams, Donnelly, Nelson, Redgate, Grocutt, Redfern, Gretton (Howell 25), Rhodes, Briscoe.
Gresley man-of-the-match: Stuart Evans
Referee: F G Stretton (West Bridgford)
Attendance: 1019
