Match Photos
Gresley Rovers vs Cinderford Town
Stalemate at the Moat
The
manager of Gresley's opponents, Cinderford Town, must have been the happier
of the two managers after a dour match of little excitement because John McGinlay
was certainly not.
"Rubbish" that was his summing up of his team's efforts after they
had failed to break down Cinderford Town. Neither keeper were challenged seriously
for the whole of the afternoon and the lack of goalmouth action made for a poor
spectacle for the 402 hardy souls who came to watch.
On 5 minutes Gresley had a clear penalty turned down by the referee. Dave Whittaker
put through Aidan Callan and as the midfielder sprinted into the area Clayton
Hook brought him down but the referee would have nothing to do with the appeal
and waved play on.
On 26 minutes the referee again denied Gresley by judging that a crystal clear
backpass that visiting keeper Andy Fisher picked up was not a back pass.
Richard Wardle came close to opening the scoring on 30 minutes when his goal
bound shot was deflected wide. Stuart Evans headed the resulting corner just
over the bar.
On 38 minutes Andy Cheetham floated in a free kick, which Barry Woolley managed
to get his head on but the Cinderford keeper saved easily.
After half time Chris Parkins replaced Chris White who was feeling unwell.
Gresley tried to push forward but the final ball left a lot to be desired.
Then
on 68 minutes Jason Donavan denied Mark Peters a goal by deflecting his shot
over the bar.
Parkins began to worry the visiting defenders and twice sent shots narrowly
over the bar in as many minutes.
The game petered out for the draw that the visitors had come for but a question
mark hangs over Gresley's ability to break down sides as defensive as Cinderford.
As Gresley's reputation as a good footballing side builds then teams will come
to the Moat Ground and play to snuff them out and I'm sure McGinlay and his
assistants will be working on that during the next week's training as they prepare
for the visit of neighbours Rocester.
One good thing to take from this match is that Gresley kept a clean sheet,
hardly a consolation for the three points they should have won.
The manager's view of the game
"Very poor! The attacking side of our game was really poor very disappointing.
Our creative play in midfield was rubbish our forward play was poor and the
movement wasn't great."
"We gave the ball away far too many times in good areas of the pitch and
our general play was rubbish."
"That performance fell well below the standard expected. But credit to
them they came here to shut us down and like most teams we are finding nowadays
they are coming and trying to stop us playing."
"To be honest neither keepers had a great deal to do. They huffed and
puffed and Aidan Callan had a shot saved in the second half apart from that
I can't remember their keeper having to make a save. Chris Parkins flashed a
few close things in the second half. Other than that nothing to speak of."
"You
expect better than that. We set our standards and we've been on a decent run
so the standards are set quite high. Today didn't come half way towards the
standards we are looking for. It was a poor performance."
"I was expecting a tough game because I know what sort of side they are.
They work hard as a team and they have come and done a job today. Their manager
will be happy going away with a point but I'm certainly not happy with a point."
"Rocester will be a similar game. They will come and stop us playing but
we've got to get used to that. That's the way teams are now and we have got
to get used to it quickly."
"Chris White came off at half time because he was ill. He felt sick and
was unwell and thinks it may have been something he may have eaten. That was
the reason he had to come off. I thought he was doing OK but we had to change
things around."
"Richard Wardle had to come off because his hamstring had tightened up.
He complained at half time that he felt it tightening up so that's why he had
to come off. I brought Simon Tucker on for the last few minutes to change things
and you never know he may have pinched something."
"Ian Bluck will be fit for next Saturday so hopefully he will be in contention.
We will have a good training week. As for Jake, it's an on going thing like
Coronation Street again hopeful for next week but we will see how this week
goes."
" Andy Bourne should be back for next week as well so we should be pretty
well at full strength. Saul goes back to Notts County tonight. He's been great
for us and has done his job again by keeping a clean sheet today. His record
speaks for itself over the month he's been here. I can't speak highly enough
of him. His attitude and everything about him has been first class and he goes
back with our best wishes and I hope he does really well."
"We have Cinderford again in a couple of weeks and the onus will be on
them to come at us and that would be the only change I would expect. They are
a decent side above a midfield side and they have a good spirit in their dressing
room as we have."
"The biggest disappointment was that we didn't create any chances. The
attacking side of the game was poor. Of late it's been good but all our corners
and free kicks were poor. They were either over hit or under hit nothing in
between. I felt sorry for the strikers at times because they had nothing to
work with. They can't fire the gun with no bullets. And there was no supply
of bullets for them today."
"I must say that the referee was poor. It appears that we should have
had a penalty, I don't know. Sometimes they are given and today it wasn't. A
few minutes after that they made a back pass to the goalkeeper who picked it
up. Nothing. Very poor."
Gresley Rovers (0) 0
Cinderford Town (0) 0
Gresley Rovers: Deeney, Wardle (Withers 76), Cheetham, Peters, Woolley,
Evans, Callan, Whittaker (Tucker 89), White (Parkins 45), Gray.
Cinderford Town: Fisher, Hook (Callinan 60), Hopkins, Hoskins, Donovan,
Bale, Truman, Ince, Plant, Addis, Harris. Subs not used: Weyman, Tomkins.
Rovers
Star Man: Aidan Callan - tried hard to prise out a goal.
Referee: I Scarr (Birmingham).
Attendance: 402
