UniBond League Division One
The Moat Ground, Church Gresley
Monday, 26th December 2005, 1.00pm
Boxing Day Stalemate
This was not the best advertisement of a Boxing Day local derby with both defences coming out on top. Neither side looked likely to score and the game was only lit up by two controversial incidents within the last fifteen minutes of what was in all honesty a scrappy and drab affair.
Shepshed looked determined and opened with Duncan O'Brien blazing a shot well over the bar after 6 minutes.
Gresley's first attempt of note came on 14 minutes when Aaron O'Connor managed to turn his markers before firing in a shot that whistled just past the far post.
Ten minutes later Mickey Lyons, on for the injured Nathan Tate, made a fine run down the right before sending a cross into the box where Paul Edwards was unfortunate not to get a touch at the far post.
Lyons was involved again on the half hour when he received a pass from O'Connor but the final shot again went wide of the post. The midfielder then returned the compliment three minutes later putting a superb pass through to O'Connor whose shot from the edge of the box went just over the bar.
The last say of the first half belonged to Dynamo. Gresley keeper Gavin Saxby failed to hold Matt Moran's free kick and during the ensuing scramble Saxby was adjudged to have been fouled and a free kick was given to the home side.
The second half was no better than the first in terms of entertaining football with Gresley resorting to the same tactics of their visitors by playing the long high hopeful ball up field leading to long periods of dull uneventful action.
One bright moment came on 67 minutes when Dynamo keeper Simon Baldwin fumbled a high ball from David Holmes and it fell to O'Connor who fired in a shot from the edge of the box that was well blocked by Michael Savage.
The action then went to the other end and Saxby did well to block a shot from Steve Gomm with Allan Davies forced to put the ball over his own bar to clear the danger.
Saxby was on hand again on 70 minutes when he got down well to hold a low shot from Moran.
On 77 minutes the first controversial moment arrived. A free kick from Gary White found Chris Brindley at the far post who headed home only for the referee's assistant to flag for something only he had seen. Even the Dynamo players looked to have resigned themselves to walking back to the centre for a re-start until one of them noticed the raised flag. The referee had indicated a goal only to change his mind after a considerable delay.
Minutes later Gresley almost grabbed a goal when O'Connor did well to lay the ball back to Jamie Barrett who then found Carl Slater but the final shot ended up in the side netting.
The second controversial moment came on 85 minutes. Davies tripped Darryl Thomas in the area for a dead cert penalty only for the referee Mr Fletcher to amaze everyone in the ground by turning down all the appeals and waving play on.
Manager's View
"I'm not sure about our goal but the linesman had his flag up and if someone had strayed offside then he was in the best place regards to that one but regards to the Shepshed penalty it was absolutely nailed on and I feel sorry for Pete. It was a nailed on penalty and the referee missed it thankfully for us.
"Offensively today we were almost non-existent. What clear-cut chances that were created today I think we created the majority of those but they were few and far between but for some reason today we just weren't functioning going forward. Several players were just not clicking and we looked dysfunctional to be honest. It was the sort of game we expected. A lot of people do Shepshed a disservice because that is exactly how we expected them to play. They are a very, very hardworking side - they out battled and out muscled us in key areas of the game and won key battles. Some of our players need to take a hard look at themselves and look at that performance today and look at some of the Shepshed performances today because they really grafted and battled. And, although they didn't really cut us open or create stuff that is probably the only positive we can take from the game. It's a rare clean sheet for us.
"It was a scrappy game, a typical local derby but the frustrating thing for us was when we did have the opportunity to get our head up and get the ball to feet and play little triangles like we've been trying to do week in week out with quite a bit of success in some games we just didn't look like getting it going today - it's very frustrating.
"Aaron didn't perform today, he was way off it along with several others. But to be fair to Aaron he is allowed an off day occasionally. It's disappointing that on a day that we do manage to get a clean sheet offensively we draw a blank as well. It's a shame but there were several others who were worse than Aaron today.
"The boys at the back and the keeper obviously take credit for the clean sheet. Carl Slater worked tirelessly again in midfield and apart from that there was very little else for us to be happy about to be honest.
"Nathan Tate has had a problem with his shoulder for a season or season and a half and it popped out which was very frustrating for him because he's been really, really patient for his opportunity and then to have that happen to him. It looked innocuous enough. One of their guys was shadowing the ball out and Nathan went in trying to put a bit of pressure on the ball and it ended up him popping his shoulder out again so our thoughts and sympathies go out to him because he's bided his time to get back into the side. That left hand side, the number 11 shirt seems a little bit cursed at the moment because we have Tony (Hemmings) out for the season and we will now have to wait for the prognosis on Nathan now and I feel sorry for him.
"It was scrappy because when you try and play the sort of football we do and it doesn't come off it does look scrappy. Shepshed to their credit are organised defensively - they've got a game plan and they've ground out a good point today. And there will be people making the short trip home thinking what might have been with that penalty. We have to take a little bit of luck from that - we were lucky because ninety nine out of a hundred other days perhaps the referee would have pointed to the spot - you've lost one-nil and all of a sudden the world looks a bleaker place so perhaps we have to take that as a positive and we know we've got a lot of work to do. We keep saying it week in week out. Players, two or three weeks ago were starting to play for their future and now Mick and I have a lot more information. I said a few weeks ago about giving people the opportunity and we feel as though we've done that now and if players find themselves out of the side and new blood comes in and gets an opportunity there are not many people really who can argue with that based on what we've seen recently."
