UniBond Presidents Cup
Croft Park, Blyth, Northumberland
Saturday, 18th December 2004, 3.00pm
Rovers out of Presidents Cup
To be honest there will not be too many tears shed after this UniBond Presidents Cup defeat.
Having been beaten by Lincoln United in what is the League Cup Gresley faced the long, long trip to Northumbria in an extra cup game. And the distance seemed to have dulled their cutting edge as they slipped out of this competition.
Due to various problems on route Gresley arrived with only 40 minutes to go before the kick off which wasn't the best of preparations.
Manager Gary Norton had reshuffled the side that had pulled off that unexpected County Cup victory over Matlock Town in midweek bringing in on-loan David Holmes and new signing Marc Laws.
The home side had the better start and could have been in the lead after just a couple of minutes but Ian Cruthwell chose to pass rather than to take the better option himself.
Laws went close after some good work from Holmes and O'Connor but his shot took a deflection and Craig Turns made the save.
Spartans came back at their visitors and Andy Simpson needed to head away a dangerous cross from Stephen Harrison for a corner.
The home side took the lead on 11 minutes. A free kick from Anthony Lowther was headed down by Scott Preen to recent signing Scott Bell who made no mistake putting the ball past Gavin Saxby from just inside the penalty area.
They should have doubled their advantage two minutes later when Saxby could only parry Paul Barrett's into the path of Martin Peace but he wasted a golden chance putting the ball woefully wide of the target.
Laws tested Turns before Holmes went close with a shot just the wrong side of the upright. The on loan player had two further chances just before the break.
Saxby was on hand to deny both Bell and Preen as the home side tried to increase their lead, but Gresley slowly began to come more into the match and looked likely to grab an equaliser.
On 60 minutes James Fox's cross found Holmes who was unfortunate to see his shot fly over. O'Connor almost got his fifteenth goal of the season minutes later but again Turns made the save.
The home side did get their second on 64 minutes. Preece collected the ball and sent in a cross into Gresley's danger area where former Aston Villa striker Graham Fenton hit a superb volley into the top of the net.
Gresley managed to claw their way back into the match on 74 minutes when Ashley Dodd's cross was headed into the net by Liam Hebberd after he'd out jumped Turns to the ball.
The visitors went all out to try and grab a goal and force extra time and it almost cost them dearly. Richard Forster failed to capitalise on a pass from Preece, which would have sewed the game up.
The final chance came to the home side but Fenton hit a shot into the side netting with Saxby beaten.
Manager's View
"I'm obviously disappointed to lose the game today. Several players were miles off things in the first half and although we improve significantly in the second, the goals we gave away today were poor. One of our trademarks this season has been our work rate off the ball but today we were second best in that respect although as I said things we much better in the second half.
"Its common knowledge that the Presidents cup wasn't one of our priorities but the side we put out demonstrated that we didn't come all this way to get beaten. At the end of the day it was a quarter final and a chance to reach a second Semi Final in a week but it wasn't to be. We are disappointed but need to put it behind us and focus on our next three league games.
"We missed Gary White's presence today as well as Jamie Hood but both will be back for our Holiday games with Shepshed as should Laurie Wilson on loan from Burton although we will be without Matt Smith who will be out of the country. Hopefully Matt K Smith will have recovered from his injury to by the time the 28th comes round.
"David Holmes was magnificent today and showed in that 90 minutes why we were so delighted that we had managed to get him in on loan from Alfreton. His movement off the ball was quality and he rarely gave the ball away although I know he'd rather forget the chance he missed to put us level early in the second half. If a few more had matched his work rate this afternoon then we would have been making the long journey back having secured a slot in the next round.
"The 10 day break before our next game will hopefully do us the world of good and freshen the lads up ready for the second half of the season. We have 3 vital league games coming up including the holiday derbies against Shepshed so we will now start to focus our effort on getting as many points as we can in those three games."
