UniBond League Division One
The Moat Ground, Church Gresley
Saturday, 14th January 2006, 3.00pm
Points shared at The Moat Ground
Rossendale United came to the Moat Ground as one of the form sides in the UniBond Division One and returned home with their unbeaten run now extended to eight games.
The form showed as they fully deserved a share of the points.
Gresley were the first to go close when on 5 minutes Carl Slater hammered in a hard low shot that Mark Andrews did well to get down to and push away for a corner.
Matt Moran than had a chance on 15 minutes after Aaron O'Connor had laid the ball on for him but the midfielder hesitated and allowed the ball to be cleared by the United defence.
On 20 minutes Rossendale had their first chance but Gresley defender Chris Brindley was alert to the danger and headed clear.
Gresley took the lead on 26 minutes. Allan Davies' freek kick found David Holmes who did very well to hold the ball up before passing to Gary White. White's pinpoint cross found the head of the top scorer who put the ball into the net for his 21st goal of the season.
Both defences were on top for the remainder of the half but Adam Koslowski sent his shot wide on 42 minutes and then three minutes later Gavin Saxby saved well from Chris Brookes but Bernard Morley blazed the rebound well over the bar.
The Stags put the home defence under pressure almost from the start of the second period and just over the hour mark went close to getting back on terms. Substitute Matt Edgington's cross was played into the path of David Eatock by Ian Barker and the final shot was prevented from hitting the target by a deflection from a Gresley defender.
Eatock then went close on 68 minutes but fired over the bar when well placed.
Rossendale got back on terms on 79 minutes in rather fortuitous circumstances. Eatock got on the end of Stuart Tulloch's cross, that had eluded Gresley defender Davies, but Saxby made a superb block of the header only for the rebound to drop very nicely for Eatock to prod home.
The goal seemed to spark Gresley into life and they created more chances in the final 10 minutes than they had for the previous 80.
On 80 minutes O'Connor hit a vicious volley just over the bar and then play switched to the other end where Saxby saved well from Morley.
With just four minutes remaining O'Connor latched on to a defensive mix-up only to be denied by Andrews' fine block. Nathan Tate then went close on 87 minutes but put his shot wide and with only a couple of minutes remaining Gresley almost snatched the winner.
Tate made a tremendous run through the middle and found Holmes on the right of the area. Holmes' superb first time shot was well blocked by Andrews.
Manager's View
"I'm disappointed not to have taken all three points. There are times in football when you can get the ball down, pass it about, open sides up and score lots and lots of goals. And at stages earlier in the season we were doing that at home but there are times when you have to win and win ugly. Today I thought we just about deserved to sneak the victory. It was a tough one - they had a couple of good chances as well and (Gavin) Saxby made some good saves.
"We didn't get going today but we had our noses in front and defensively I felt we looked fairly solid and I was hoping we could just nick that second goal to take the pressure off or grind out the one nil.
"It was a disappointing goal to concede. Allan Davies got caught at the back stick and David Eatock got inside him. To be fair, Sax has made another good save but they had that little bit of luck with the rebound and forced it over the line.
"The frustrating thing for us is that we created more chances in the last ten or eleven minutes since their equaliser than we had created in the first eighty minutes and that's not good enough. Aaron went through and that is the deference between winning games putting those chances away. David Holmes went through and he couldn't have caught it any better and it was a fantastic save from the keeper. It wasn't to be today.
"If there were any positives today it was that we played poorly and not lost the game. If we are going to anything this year we've got to be beating mid table sides like Rossendale on your own patch and that's no disrespect to them. They are a vastly different team from when we played then earlier in the season. That's eight unbeaten for them under their new manager and they are no mugs. They are a potential play-off team if they keep this run going.
"But, when you've got the likes of Mossley, Colwyn Bay and those other sides that are flying at the top. Bridlington next week there is even more importance on that game now, to get three points. When you've got teams like that coming to the Moat Ground realistically you've got to be taking three points from games like today.
"The frustrating thing is that we've not been good enough. If you look back to the last home game it was nil nil, frustrating and two points dropped. On chances we should have won the game but we're not putting them away at the moment.
"I've just said to Mick (Curry) in the dressing room that it's frustrating that we've sorted the defence out we are now struggling to score. We do look a little more solid when we have that particular back four playing. If I'm being a little critical our full backs are giving too many free kicks away at the moment and it's something we are conscious of. Chris Brindley and Andy Simpson look very, very solid. Andy looks a completely different player playing alongside Chris and I hope we can keep that going. But the frustrating thing is that now we are fairly tight at the back but we are struggling to come by the goals that seemed to come effortless earlier in the season.
"We've just got to keep our heads down and keep working hard and create chances - they're going to come. We can't keep relying on Aaron up front.
"Nathan Tate made a difference when he came on - he added a bit of pace. There were one or two of their players I was very impressed with. The 11 (David Eatock) and also the 5 (Bill Robertson) the small lad at the back his pace was frightening and I don't think we got Aaron in behind them too many times he read the game very, very well. The 10 (Bernard Morley) in midfield competed and battled.
"The disappointing thing was they out battled us in the first half and wanted it more. We responded in the second half - a little bit better but not quite where we need to be and not quite where we should be."
