Pre-season Friendly
The Moat Ground, Church Gresley
Friday, 29th July 2005, 7.30pm
All square at the Moat Ground
Leek Town came to the Moat Ground with a couple of good pre-season victories against Stoke City and Macclesfield under their belts.
Gresley were expecting a stiff test and so it proved. Home keeper gavin Saxby was soon in action tipping away a decent shot from Dave Whitaker after just 7 minutes.
Three minutes later David McPherson went close putting a header just over and the same player was denied by Saxby's good save moments later as Leek put on the pressure.
Gresley slowly got into the game and on 14 minutes Paul Edwards put a shot wide of the mark and Nicky Carter also fired wide six minutes later.
On 22 minutes Gresley were awarded a corner taken on the right by Gary White. Leek keeper Rob Hackney flapped at the ball and it was not cleared allowing Andy Simpson to fire in a shot which was blocked but the rebound fell nicely for Tony Hemmings who smashed the ball home.
The goal seemed to spur Leek into more attacks and a defender prevented Whittaker heading home from Ryan Brown's corner. However, Gresley could have grabbed a second when, after some fine work by Hemmings he put over a cross that was scrambled away for a corner. Simpson managed to get his head on Gary White's resultant corner but the ball flew over the bar.
Action went up to the other end where Andy Kinsey flashed a shot wide of a post but the visitor's didn't have long to wait for their equaliser.
On 39 minutes some hesitant defending by Gresley allowed the ball to drop in the box and Jamie McArthy was on hand to fire home aided by the inside of a post.
Leek came out of the blocks for the second period at full tilt and should have taken the lead but for some woeful finishing by Whittaker. On 50 minutes he ran onto a superb through ball from Richard Beale catching the home defence flat footed and raced in on goal but with only Saxby to beat the former Moatman put his shot high over the bar.
Substitute Carl Adams went close to restoring Gresley's lead on 78 minutes but his diving header from Chris Gray's cross went just wide.
Simpson then saved his team mates three minutes later with a perfectly timed last-ditch tackle denying an almost certain goal scoring chance.
James Pemberton, on for Gavin Saxby, pulled off a remarkable save with almost his first touch. Diving full length he got a hand to Dean Ennion's shot pushing the ball away for a corner.
Aaron O'Connor could have nicked a win for Gresley after jinxing into the box but he put his shot agonisingly wide.
Manager's View
"I as very impressed with that performance. Leek are a very good outfit and I felt at times in the second half that we defended doggedly more than anything. I felt we played our better football in the first half but showed in the second half that we can dig in a little bit. We tried to force things in the second half as we got tired and we were giving the ball away and we were going long and the ball was coming back to us. But I was pleased to see how resolutely we defended and I was encouraged by it.
"Andy Simpson was again tremendous tonight and Tony Brown has come in and done well giving us food for thought there as well. We are hoping to bring Matt Millns in but there is still a lot of work to do.
"Nicky Carter was fantastic and personally was our man of the match. He's been one of the highlights in pre-season.
"I had to bring Nathan Tate off because he took a knock. If it had been a league match he may have been fit enough to carry on but we saw no reason to risk it and withdrew him. He should be fully recovered by Tuesday."
