UniBond League Division One
Shawbridge, Clitheroe
Saturday, 4th February 2006, 3.00pm
Rovers fightback earns a point
After a fairly even start to the game Clitheroe took the lead on 23 minutes. Awarded a free kick Tom Hardwick slung the ball over to the far post, which was then headed back across goal by Simon Garner. Gresley keeper Gavin Saxby hesitated and midfielder Paul Stansfield was allowed to fire the ball into the net.
The home side were now on top and they increased their lead on 34 minutes. Stanfield and Garner were again instrumental in the goal. After getting around the back of Matt Moran Stanfield found Paul Rogers whose shot was parried by Saxby only for the rebound to fall to Tony Evans who blasted the ball home from 15 yards.
Gresley manager Gary Norton made changes as he saw his team being overrun - Chris White brought on for Moran just after the half hour. The changes seemed to do the trick and Gresley got themselves back into the game with five minutes of the half remaining.
A Gary White long throw from the left was flicked on by Aaron O'Connor into the box and after a goal mouth scramble Jamie Barrett managed to poke the ball over the line.
Gresley looked far more positive for the start of the second period but another mistake on 53 minutes enabled the home side to increase their advantage. Evans was allowed to make his way through the Gresley defence before he curled a shot into the bottom corner that Saxby should have dealt with.
The game seemed over for the visitors but on 63 minutes Matt Millns playing up front in place of David Holmes almost cut the deficit when he hit a glorious shot that flew inches wide of a post with the keeper Peter Collinge a mere spectator.
The unfortunate Chris White limped off and Mickey Lyons replaced him with just with 15 minutes left on the clock. Defender Chris Brindley was also summoned up front as Gresley looked to try and salvage something out of the game.
On 89 minutes Carl Slater's miss hit shot fell to O'Connor who had been largely anonymous for most of the game who then made himself some space and running across goal, fired an unstoppable right-foot shot across Collinge and into the far corner.
Could Gresley snatch a point? It seemed unlikely with time almost up, but less than a minute later they had. Allan Davies launched a free kick that was headed down by Millns to O'Connor who hit a superb volley from the edge of the box leaving the home side deflated and the home supporters stunned.
Manager's View
"To be honest I didn't notice Aaron playing today and all of a sudden bang he popped up in the 89th and 90th minute. It was a late show, we got a point but let's not paper over any cracks - did we deserve to get anything out of that game? The second half performance I was very pleased with the response but for the third week on the trot we've been well off it in the first half and then we've given ourselves an even bigger mountain to climb by a sloppy third goal. The endeavour and work rate was there but trying to pull yourself back from two one and three one away from home with an away record like we've got is difficult.
"Credit to Aaron, because that's the sign of a good player, he's kept going and that's why we are always reluctant whenever Aaron is having an average or poor game to bring him off because he's got that in his locker. If Chris White hadn't have got injured Aaron would have been sitting with us in the box. Chris took a bang and couldn't carry on because we were going to bring Aaron off with about twenty minutes to go - thank goodness we didn't - two cracking goals.
"When we got the equaliser I must admit I didn't really celebrate too much because in my opinion we got to be coming to places, and no disrespect to Clitheroe who were fantastic today playing some good football because we let them, places like this and getting three points. If we allow teams to play and give them the room we did in the first half they will exploit you. They are a good side, they've got young players and their work rate, their passing, we just allowed them too much space. We can't keep going in at half time trying to get reactions off players and to be fair we did in the second half. I feel sorry for Tommy who was gutted when the late equaliser went in but you've got to give credit to our boys for getting us back from that position. But why was we in that position in the first place? If I'm honest I've got serious question marks over one or two things defensively again. It's a shame but we will be seeing new faces in the coming seven days at the club because I think this team in terms of the personnel we have in it have had too many chances and opportunities and if we are not careful we are in serious danger of letting the season go down the pan.
"It the same frailties we've seen before. We gave a very cheap first goal away defensively and the third goal I wasn't particularly happy with. The second goal I think Matt Moran let the guy get in behind him far too easily and defensively for the first twenty minutes Matt wasn't quite at it so we brought him off in the first half. We had a good chat with Matt and he's positive but as a manager two nil down and twenty minutes away from home you sometimes have to make difficult decisions and I felt that was a difficult one. Non-the less it was one we made but it certainly wasn't down to Matt on his own. There were several other people out there that were way, way off it today.
"There was a massive question over their third goal and questions over the first as well. Gavin is six foot four and he's a such lovely lad and there is nobody who wants to do well and tries harder than Gavin Saxby but, as a keeper when those sort of balls are delivered into the box - it looped over to the far post - he's got to be taking allsorts of people out to get to that. So there is a bit of a question mark over that. Certainly the third goal, we were right behind it and I don't know whether he misjudged it or what but it seemed to bounce and go straight through him. It's the harsh reality of football but as lovely lad as he is he's had the opportunity again today. After the Eastwood game - when we managed to win it - he had a mad fifteen, twenty minutes we kept faith with him and he went on and had ten cracking games but as a goal keeper you can only afford a couple of dodgy games a season. I thought long and hard on how we'd approached it letting him know that maybe we were considering bringing other people in or Pembo (James Pemberton) to put a bit of pressure on him - whether that's fair or not, this is football at the end of the day and we either live or die by our decisions as managers of the performances of our players.
"I thought Nicky Carter was fantastic today for saying he's been out and it was probably his first ninety minutes at this level for a long, long time. Deep into the game when we were three one down I turned to Mick (Curry) and said that Nick was one of the few big positives out of today - he sustained himself for the whole period of the game. Another positive was Carl Slater. Apart from the first five minutes when we had to give him a bit of a 'shooing' from the touchline he was outstanding. There was one or two other decent performances out there but you've got to do it for ninety minutes plus. Nick's done that today. Allan Davies kept going and tried to drive us forward us Chris Brindley was asked to play in another position again and he caused them all sorts of problems and got a flick on for the first goal. It was scrappy with both Andy Simpson and Jamie Barrett scrapping over who got that one. At the end of the day Brinners was involved in it. We'd chucked him up front with Matt Millns gambling at three one down and it came off today.
"There were one or two others. Mickey Lyons was quality today. He was very honest with us before the game saying he was feeling a little bit off it so he had a fitness test and said he didn't feel right but he's gone on and we got twenty good minutes out of him. He's in the dressing room feeling it a bit now but I've got to applaud his honesty because he's been superb for the last couple of weeks and it's easy to say 'I think I'll be okay' but that's the professionalism of Mickey Lyons to say he doesn't feel right but he went on and made a difference for the last twenty minutes and pulled a few strings.
"David (Holmes) and Aaron were not on their game especially the first half today compared with their front two. I don't mean this in any disrespectful way to David or Aaron but the form, movement, ability and quality they were showing earlier in the season when they had a little spell in the side together just wasn't there. Aaron looks way off it at the moment but he's got himself two goals today and I'm sure he'll play through that.
"There's a lot of work to do and let's not paper over any cracks. It was a great result in terms of coming back from three one down but that's the only positive it's a full stop after that. We've a lot of work to do on the training pitch and there will be new faces. I've been on the phone all week trying to set wheels in motion to bring players into the club."
