Gresley Rovers vs Walsall Wood
Gary Norton's former assistant Steve Hinks brought his side Walsall Wood to the Moat Ground for a friendly/practice match.
The first goal came on 16 minutes when Allan Davies unleashed an unstoppable 20-yard shot that flew over the keeper's head and into the net.
Gary White saw a shot saved and both Andy Simpson and Aaron O'Connor went close early on. Walsall set up a fine move and went close with a shot that just cleared the bar.
The visitor's equalised on 36 minutes when Gary White was harshly penalised for a foul in the box. Stuart Skitt scored from the spot kick and although Gavin Saxby got a hand to the ball it wasn't enough to keep it out.
Almost on half time Gresley went close to re-taking the lead. A free kick from Gary White was caught at the third attempt by the keeper after juggling with the ball while lying on the ground.
Gresley made two changes at half time with James Pemberton replacing Saxby and Paul Edwards replacing David Holmes.
Matt Moran did restore Gresley's lead just after the hour when he did well to shake off his marker before firing low into the bottom corner.
Three minutes later Walsall were back on terms when Shaun Charles let fly with a shot that beat Pemberton and ended up in the far top corner.
Both sides continued to make changes and both could have snatched a winner before the end.
On 80 minutes Carl Slater fired a long range shot that just cleared the bar and three minutes later Walsall fired a shot across the face of Gresley's goal.
Matt Millns went very close almost on time but his header was cleared off the line.
Gresley: Saxby (Pemberton 45), Davies, Carter, G White, Millns, Simpson, Moran (Williams 78), Barrett, Slater, O'Connor (Mawby 78), Holmes (Edwards 45).
The manager's view
"The game achieved what we wanted. It was a good work out for Steve's side and for ourselves. It's difficult and frustrating sometimes in training to work on certain things and sometimes these things are a good alternative. It's something I will be looking to do again.
"The frustrating thing tonight was that we wanted to look at a different formation. We've managed to do that but because of the people unavailable - Chris Brindley, Mickey Lyons and Chris White - who would have all started in the formation we were looking at we've had to swap things about a little bit.
"The key things we wanted out of the game have been achieved. Okay the goals were sloppy - Jamie Barrett gave the goal away for the second goal and a mix-up between Gary (White) and Gavin (Saxby) for the first goal
"Ultimately it wasn't about that, it didn't cost us tonight - we've got to learn from little bits and bobs. Essentially it was a very good work out, all the players enjoyed it and it was much more intense than any training activity and the good thing is that we've come out and we've not got too many injury problems. Baz (Jamie Barrett) has a slight Achilles that's why he came off and fortunately Steve lent us one of his guys because all of our were on.
"It gave us an opportunity to look at one or two of the younger lads particularly Chris Mawbey who is doing quite well in the reserves and has come through the youth set up and obviously Dave Williams who's also doing well.
So, I'm fairly pleased. We are not going to go mad with what we've seen tonight. There is a long way to go in terms of looking at things and adjusting things. Tonight has given us a lot of positives and also a few things that we need to fine tune before we look at things any further with this formation."
