UniBond League Division One
Queens Terrace, Ossett
Monday, 29th August 2005, 3.00pm
Gresley lose on the road
Despite a vastly improved performance that manager Gary Norton had called for Gresley came away from Queens Terrace without at least a share of the points. A hotly disputed second half goal was enough to deny them.
The first quarter of the match was a cagey affair with Ossett making the first attempt when Adam Fretwell blasted a low shot that Gresley keeper James Pemberton did well to push away for a corner.
Minutes later Gresley had what looked like a dead cert penalty shout as home defender Dominic Riordon upended Aaron O'Connor in the box. Amazingly, referee Mr Mellor waved play on.
Three minutes later Pemberton was hurt in a clash with Dave Dickinson and it looked worrying has he lay motionless on the field. Pemberton had previously suffered a serious shoulder injury in his career and it looked as though this was going to be a repeat. Thankfully, after some lengthy treatment, he was declared fit to continue.
On the half hour Gresley skipper Andy Simpson went close putting his header from Gary White's corner just wide of the post. And Andy Davies brushed a post with a low shot.
Six minutes later a superb pass from O'Connor put Nathan Tate through whose shot was well saved by Michael Clark.
Gresley went in front just three minutes after of the second half. A Gary White free kick was met by Matt Millns who, after getting past his marker, headed the ball home.
Pemberton made a brave clearance on the hour when Andy Farrell almost got to a poor back pass from Millns but the keeper managed to get to the ball before him and cleared the danger.
However, Ossett didn't have to wait too long to get on terms. On 60 minutes a cross from Farrell was not cleared and Gary Duffy was on hand to knock the ball home.
Gresley went back on to the attack and it was Clark's turn to save his team mates when Tate stole the ball off a dithering defender, raced into the box before unleashing a shot that Clark did well to hold.
On 71 minutes another moment of controversy. Dickinson was in an offside position when he was looking to run on to a through ball. However, the ball was deflected out for a throw in off a Gresley defender. While the Gresley players were appealing to the referee's assistant for the offside a quick throw in caught the visitors knapping and Dickinson smashed the ball past Pemberton.
Gresley began to push everyone forward looking for their deserved equaliser and were nearly caught cold deep into injury time but Pemberton was equal to Farrell's shot.
Manager's View
"I feel a little hard done by really. It's a bitter pill to swallow because I didn't think our lads deserved that. I was really, really pleased with the general performance especially after Saturday. We asked for a response and I really felt we got it. It was a full-bloodied committed performance and we just got done at the end. A lot of the lads are complaining about the offside for the goal but at this level of football we showed a bit of a little bit of naivety because we are still arguing about and they have got on and took the throw in and we switched off and got punished. It's hard to swallow but I'm pleased with the performance and I feel we deserved something from the game.
"I felt we should have had a penalty in the first half but the ref decided not to give it and that's the sort of misfortune we are having at the moment - we don't seem to getting those decisions. But over the cause of the season these things even themselves out and perhaps we will get something in future games.
"James Pemberton got hurt and we were quite worried about him because he's damaged that shoulder in the past. But fortunately after a few minutes he got movement in it and he went on to have a very good game for us. We were committing bodies forward at the end and he popped up with a decent one on one at the end and made a good save. Generally he didn't have much to do as we controlled the game. First half they didn't really create much and in the seconds half, except for a couple of bits of sloppy defending, we defended really well. We restricted them to very few opportunities. If you look at the statistics for an away side we fare really well.
"A big positive was Matt Millns getting his first goal for club especially as it was in front of his previous manager Brian who was here doing his homework for Friday. We've been working on things in training where we get Matt free and get across the keeper and it's nice when they come off. It was a great goal but unfortunately today it didn't count for anything because we ended up losing.
"I thought Nathan had a great game today. I felt in the first couple of games he was a little bit unsure of things and he wasn't really positive so we took him out on Saturday and he's gone back in today and he's done a cracking job and done really, really well so we're quite pleased with him."
