Stourport Swifts vs Gresley Rovers
No joy for Rovers
Mark Peters was recalled in place of the injured Richard Wardle and Neil Kitching
replaced David Shaw on the bench.
Shaw has gone on a month's loan to Congleton Town to help him regain his match
fitness.
In a lively opening John McGinlay's formation of 3 -4 - 3 looked likely to
create a goal with Chris Gray pushed up to join Kevin Allsop and Chris Parkins.
And it almost paid dividends when Gresley had chances to go 4 up inside the
opening ten minutes.
Skipper Stuart Evans met Gray's right wing cross with a firm header that forced
home keeper Robert Clarke into a fine reflex save.
A minute later the keeper, having fumbled Gray's free kick recovered well to
save from Parkins.
Allsop then saw his lob go just wide of the empty net after beating Clarke
to a long ball on 6 minutes.
On 8 minutes Parkins blocked David Davies' attempted clearance but shot straight
at the keeper.
After a slow start the home side came more into the game with Lee Shaw's cross
towards Brendan Hackett being cleared by Mark Peters at the expense of a corner,
which was easily taken by James Lindley.
Home skipper Shaw was only marginally too high with a 25-yard drive before
Asa Charlton just failed to connect with a probing cross from Tim Langford and
Langford himself missing an open goal after connecting with a Lee Booth cross.
In the 27th minute, Parkins helped on Allsop's cross for Peters, who dragged
his first time effort wide.
Alec Cowley got away from Cheetham before picking out Lee Booth, who headed
over when well placed.
Gresley made a switch after 37 minutes bringing on Neil Kitching for Alex Green
who had suffered a back injury.
But it was Stourport who broke the deadlock on 44 minutes when Cowley's cross
picked out Booth for a glancing header at the far post.
In the 53rd minute it was almost 2 - 0 when Booth's chip hit the bar.
Gresley responded with Kitching touching a short free kick to Westwood, whose
shot was tipped over by Clarke.
On 57 minutes Rovers could have been back in the game when a Peters' free kick
from the left picked out Barry Woolley who put his header wide.
Allsop and Peters both saw efforts blocked and Rovers were lucky not to concede
again when Cowley appeared to brought down by Andy Cheetham but the resulting
appeal was turned down by the referee.
But in the 76th minute Stourport's second penalty appeal was successful when
Bluck was penalised for tripping Langford in the box. Booth coolly slotted home
the penalty.
There was no way back as the Moatmen slipped to another disappointing defeat.
The manager's view of the match.
"We created some great chances today and there were some great crosses put
into the box but there was no-one on the end of them.
We had at least 75 per cent of the play and could have been three up in the
first ten minutes.
It's crying out for one, possibly two strikers to come in and hopefully there
will be one definitely in before Wednesday. But it will mean players will be
leaving the club and I've told them all that.
Stourport put one hopeful ball into our box and the striker got in front of
one of our defenders, who ended up on the floor. But it was the penalty that
killed us. It was a stupid tackle, the boy was fairly wide and going nowhere."
Stourport Swifts (1) 2
Gresley Rovers (0) 0
Scorer: Booth 44, 76.
Stourport Swifts: Clarke, Hackett (Knight 71), Charlton, Mulders, Davies,
Shaw, Cowley (Cooper 84), Nicholls, Langford (Harvey 77), Booth, Marsh.
Gresley Rovers: Lindley, Bluck (Middleton 84), Cheetham, Westwood, Woolley,
Evans, Gray, Green (Kitching 36), Allsop (Bedward 71), Parkins, Peters.
Rovers
Star Man: Andy Cheetham - best defender.
Referee: D Annis (Stonehouse)
Attendance: 121
