Pre-season friendly
Edge Hill, Stapenhill
Saturday, 16th July 2005, 3.00pm
It's amazing how soon pre-season matches come around each year!
On a sweltering summer afternoon Gresley Rovers sent a side made up of first teamers, triallists and reserve team players over to their near neighbours Stapenhill for their first pre-season friendly.
It was soon apparent that Stapenhill were up for the occasion but it was Gresley who had the first half-chance of the afternoon after just 5 minutes when Paul Edward's looping header went just wide of the mark.
Stapenhill's first foray in Gresley's half came on 15 minutes but the shot from long range went well wide.
Gary White then put a header wide but the home side grabbed the opener when Stephan Marshall found himself in acres of space and was able to chip the ball over Gavin Saxby and into the net.
The Swans could have increased their lead after being awarded a free kick just outside the box but Saxby did well to tip the ball over the bar.
Just after the half-hour mark Edwards's shot deceived Stapenhill's keeper who had to hurriedly knock the ball out for a corner. The corner found Nicky Carter who was unlucky to see his shot cannon back of the upright. Gresley did have the ball in the net but according to the referee the keeper had been fouled and the goal was ruled out.
Gresley should have had a chance to get on terms just before the half time break when Emeka Ejiofor was floored in the area but again the referee chose to ignore the appeal.
Within a couple of minutes of the re-start Stapenhill doubled their lead. With Gresley's defence all at sea Marshall was able to get onto the loose ball and slot it home.
Ejiofor notched a goal for the visitors when he was put through before calmly chipping the ball over the on-rushing Swans keeper.
On 66 minutes Marshall completed his hat trick with a well-taken goal. He looked offside but with the Gresley defence completely flatfooted he finished his task superbly.
Gresley almost pulled a goal back when White's corner almost flew into the net unaided.
Stapenhill came back and a well struck 20-yard free kick brought off a good save from Saxby.
With 15 minutes remaining Ejiofor was denied by two posts. A superb through ball by Carl Adams found Ejiofor who then beat the keeper with a goalbound shot that hit the inside of the far post then ran along the goal line hitting the inside the near post before bouncing away to safety.
Manager's View
"This match gave us what we were looking for in many ways. We wanted a low-key loosener before the two big games against Burton Albion and Notts County next week but having witnessed that perhaps we need another one!
"It's difficult to draw any major conclusions out of that. Credit to Stapenhill they worked very, very hard and without a shadow of a doubt deserved to win as they took their chances and in my opinion played the better football.
"A lot of our players will not be playing on Monday evening as other team members come back off their holidays. The side today will not be the side that starts on 20th August there will be many, many changes.
"Having said that, the disappointing thing about today was that Stapenhill worked harder than us, they made more effective use of the ball whereas we were disjointed and lethargic and didn't play good football. We were one-dimensional and we were trying to force things to much. The one thing I can take from today is that we've a lot of work to do.
"We played David Holmes as centre half today and he isn't a centre half. Paul Wardle did us a favour today because there wasn't anyone else who was a recognised defender in the squad. Hopefully this will be resolved next week has we've a couple coming on trial.
"It was obvious from today's game that some of our players are not as fit as they should be and they've been told as much. It's always nice to win games but today Stapenhill fully deserved to win."
