UniBond League Division
Coronation Park, Eastwood
Tuesday, 19th September 2006, 7.45pm
Badgers Grab A Late Winner
Gresley Rovers were within 7 minutes of grabbing a hard earned point at high-flying Eastwood Town but were denied by a lucky goal.
Manager Gary Norton had to patch his defence up due to injury to three of his first team players bringing in former Moatman Ian Bluck and Damian Magee on loan from Alfreton Town.
The visitors started well and forced an early corner after just 2 minutes but the Badgers hit back and forced keeper Tommy Whittle into a superb save tipping over a stinging shot from Junior Daniel.
However, Gresley took the lead on 10 minutes. Shaun Ridgway was sent on his way down the right by a quickly taken free kick, Paul Edwards dummied the resulting cross flat footing the home defence and Magee smashed a low 20 yards shot past home keeper Ian Deakin.
Three minutes later the impressive Daniel flashed a shot just wide of the post of the Gresley goal and the action switched to the other end where Aaron O'Connor fired a long-range shot just wide of the home goal post.
On 19 minutes Eastwood should have been level but Adam Kerley hit a wild shot well over the bar when very well placed. The home side pushed forward and it took a superbly timed save by Whittle a minute later to keep his side in front. League top scorer Paul Knox was put through in on goal by a pinpoint pass from Daniel and just as the front man set himself to celebrate a goal Whittle dived at his feet to grab the ball off his toes.
Knox twice went close within minutes, the first on 23 minutes when his shot from the right looked goal bound only for Whittle to dive low to his left and push the ball away for a corner much to the annoyance of the home fans behind the goal who were already leaping in the air and cheering the equaliser. Knox then fired a shot into the side netting minutes later with only Whittle to beat.
Whittle then almost gifted the Badgers a goal when he miskicked his clearance allowing Daniel to shoot just inside the box but the keeper redeemed himself and blocked the shot at the near post.
Eastwood came out for the second half determined to grab the goals that would propel them to the top of the table and went close to levelling on 47 minutes but Daniel put his shot wide of the far post.
They didn't have long to wait, however. Knox flicked on Chris Shaw's cross to Kerley, whose shot was superbly blocked by Millns, unfortunately the rebound fell nicely for Daniel, who drilled a low shot past Whittle from the edge of the box and into the far corner of the net.
The home side were no dominating proceedings as they saw the top of the table beckoning them and were forcing Gresley back. On 57 minutes Whittle pulled off yet another good save to deny Daniel pushing his attempt away for a corner.
Eastwood's manager Paul Cox made a change that almost paid an instant dividend. Bringing on Lindon Meikle for Knox on 77 minutes the substitute crashed a shot from the left onto the crossbar four minutes of coming onto the pitch.
The winning goal came in somewhat fortuitous circumstances. On 83 minutes, and Gresley looking set to grab a point, a corner from Shaw was only half cleared back to the player. His cross flew into the box through a forest of legs and beat the unsighted Whittle into the far corner much to the amazement of Shaw who celebrated his good fortune by removing his shirt which earned him a needless yellow card.
Gresley almost grabbed a share of the points with just four minutes remaining. Jamie Barrett found Carl Slater on the edge of the box. Slater's first shot was well blocked but unfortunately the rebound was also well blocked by Deakin.
Manager's View
"That result just sums things up at the minute. The goal at the end was a bit fortunate but it was a sloppy goal to give away. When you're near the top those things go for you and when your scrapping into the situation we're in they tend to go against you. Not that I've been in this situation before - that's what other managers say so it seems a good thing to say.
"It's frustrating really because of the contrast from Saturday. First half we were bright and I thought we played the better football. We patched a side together, literally patched a side together. Defensively I thought Ian Bluck was magnificent with his limitations and the new lad Damian Magee - fantastic for us, did really, really well. Scored a great goal and put us in front gave us something rare this season something to go at. It was a relatively solid first half and it was something to try and get our teeth into at half time.
"I felt for the first ten or fifteen minutes we needed to keep the lead and we had one or two early opportunities for them in the first half. Paul's very astute, a very good coach and made one or two adjustments at half time but we thought we had enough in the locker to combat that. We didn't keep our shape. Away from home and one-nil up there are times when you do go chasing things but there are times that you need to sit in and keep compact. I just felt for that first ten or fifteen minutes that we were a little bit too cavalier, left a little bit too much time and space in the box. It was a fantastic equaliser - great strike, in fact two great left foot strikes today but we were disappointed that we were the wrong side of the guy. Then all of a sudden we are trying to hang on. You could see a little bit of confidence go out of the side as you do when you are in the situation we are in but compared to Saturday the work rate - we were closer to the players after the goal and I really did think we were going to get a point tonight, a hard earned point. We rode our luck at times. Second half we didn't crate as much. Front men were fantastic in the first half but they didn't get the service in the second. We did look a little bit long instead of getting the ball down and trying to play football like we did in the first half - I thought we played some good stuff.
"The goal came with seven or eight minutes to go and it was a cheap goal. We've had a chat about it in there (dressing room) but those things go against you when you're on the run we are.
"In the situation we're in we'd have probably settled for a point. Before the game four points from six is not good. I'm a young manager, in my fourth year but still one of the youngest managers at this level and I've not been in this situation before so I need to be allowed time to gain the experience, if you like, to get us through situations like this.
"We've got to learn from it and go on try and keep the lads together. The atmosphere, for the situation we're in, was good before the game - it was a quite positive dressing room. As I've said before to the lads before the game that we try and keep things positive even to messages going on the pitch. I'm looking at all aspects really from a psychological point of thing as well as how we are playing. I'll try anything to get us out of this.
We're going to get things going for us - we didn't have any luck tonight, it went against us but you've got to work hard to earn your luck and we'll try again on Saturday.
"Ian Bluck is not available on Saturday. He was brought in to literally help us out with the injury list defensively. We felt we'd got to bring bodies in. I will be talking to Gary Mills on Thursday regarding Damian and his situation. It was a very, very good debut for him. Gary White's going to be out for a couple of weeks, Colin Hoyle's going to be out for a couple of weeks and Andy Spencer is going to be out for four to six weeks, David Holmes is probably going to be out for a week or two so we've got to look at things. We are trying to bring bodies in but we've got to make sure they're the right type of bodies. So we will do what we can. It's an unfortunate position we're in and these things happen. It's all a learning curve it's all experience. We've had bad runs before but not at the start of the season. That's why there's a bit of pressure around the place but I'll take it all day long there is no problem with that.
