FA Cup 2nd Qualifying Round Replay
Watnall Road, Hucknall
Tuesday, 5th October 2004, 7.45pm
It's not to be!
This season's FA Cup dream ended for Gresley Rovers at Watnall Road in this 2nd Qualifying Round replay.
Always the underdogs Gresley almost took Hucknall Town, who play two levels higher in the league set-up, to extra time after a spirited and battling second half display. However, two late goals gave an unfair reflection of the game.
As could be expected the home side made all the early running. On 9 minutes a free kick swung into the area by Roy Hunter found Danny Bacon who turned his marker before firing in a stinging shot. Gresley keeper James Pemberton, in for the injured Dale Belford, made a superb save tipping the ball over for a corner.
Gresley hit back on 15 minutes when a through ball from Jamie Barrett put Aaron O'Connor in on goal but his shot was lifted over the bar.
Four minutes later Hucknall took the lead. A cross was only half cleared when Jamie Hood blocked an extravagant overhead kick and Mark Smith was fortunate to find the ball at his feet and lashed home the loose ball.
Town should have doubled their advantage just minutes later when Bacon's cross found Steve Palmer but his shot went well wide of the target.
On 27 minutes another home attack resulted in a corner taken on the left by Palmer. The ball found Bacon and it took another great block by Pemberton to block the attempt.
With just a minute of the first half remaining O'Connor made a fine run down the right before sending a low cross across of the face of the goal but unfortunately there were no Gresley players able to poke the ball home.
The final action came from Gresley when Emeka Ejiofor got on the end of Matt K Smith's cross but his header went over.
Whatever was said in the dressing room at the break seemed to do the trick and Gresley came out immediately putting their hosts under pressure.
On 51 minutes O'Connor was put through by Karl Brown but Town keeper Matt Taylor was off his line in a flash to deny the 'on fire' striker with a fine block
A minute later a superb 25-yard effort from Ashley Dodd was superbly tipped over the bar by Taylor.
Pemberton had made a great save on 70 minutes denying Ricketts but made an even better effort just two minutes later this time managing to prevent Bacon from getting on the scoresheet.
Time was running out for Gresley but O'Connor had other ideas. Ejiofor's 83rd minute shot was blocked and landed in O'Connor's path and the striker made no mistake rifling home a shot that took the slightest of deflections as it went on it's way.
Another 30 minutes looked odds on but a somewhat fortunate goal gave Town a late advantage. Two minutes after Gresley had clawed their way back into the match a low shot from Palmer, which took two deflections on it's way from Gary White and Matt Smith, ended up in the back of the net with Pemberton stranded.
Gresley manager Gary Norton threw caution to the wind for the final couple of minutes pushing his central defender Matt Smith up front to try and cause problems in the Town's area but this left the Moatmen light at the back and Town took the advantage. Hunter made a good run down the right before sending over a cross that was comfortably slotted home by Bacon giving the scoreline a somewhat flattering appearance for the home side.
Manager's View
"We got ourselves back in the game but I felt we were a little bit off it in the first half compared to how we can play. They played better than Saturday. Their movement and passing was much better and I felt they controlled the midfield in the first half.
"The lads came out in the second half and did what we asked and we couldn't have asked for anymore effort. The application was fantastic and we created some really, really good chances and I genuinely felt we were going to get something in the second half - and got what we fully deserved with just seven minutes to go.
"Aaron had one or two chances particularly when he got through and tried to dink the keeper but the form he's in I thought he was going to blast it through him. Emeka and Aaron linked well for the goal and it was fully deserved and with seven minutes to go I thought we were going to take it into extra time.
"I felt that their first goal was a little fortunate it dropped for them in the box and they've put it away. The second goal took two deflections on the way through and nestled in the corner.
"It was gutting after we'd worked hard to get ourselves back into the game and in injury time we went two on two putting Matt Smith up front to cause them problems aerially and we got caught for the third goal.
"There manager Dean Barrick has told me to be proud of my players and in his opinion there was no visible difference between the two sides. That's a small crumb of consolation really, everyone in the dressing room is disappointed but we've enjoyed it and perhaps our chance was on Saturday when we played very, very well but just didn't quite manage to do it. I'm proud of my players tonight.
"Even though we came in at half time one down and we weren’t as good as Saturday and they were a lot better I said to the players that we'd had enough half chances to be positive about things and the advantage was that we know we could play a lot better than that. I said to them that we were a little bit off things so we changed one or two things tactically and it seemed to work. We got our passing going and we played some good football in the second half.
"I felt that they had the first half and that we shaded the second despite them scoring two late goals.
"Our keeper, James Pemberton did fantastically well - he made some very, very good saves. He was a bit nervous before the game and you can't fault him for any of the goals. When he was called upon he made some smart saves, he's been confident and his kicking has not been too bad and it's been a very good experience for him and he will benefit from that."
