UniBond League Division One
Christchurch Meadow, Belper
Saturday, 21st October 2006, 3.00pm
Nailers steal the points
Gresley Rovers manager Gary Norton had been hoping to field an unchanged side but had to reshuffle his side when top striker Aaron O'Connor succumbed to the flu the evening before the trip to Christchurch Meadow.
The visitors' last visit ended pointless when Chris Brindley headed an own goal with just a few minutes remaining. This time it wasn't the Moatmen who handed the Nailers the points but a controversial decision by the referee.
The game was not the most inspiring as both side cancelled each other out but the first half chance went to the home side on 20 minutes when Ross Hannah fired a wek shot straight at keeper Tommy Whittle.
A minute later Norton had to change things again when Andy Simpson had to leave the field after some lengthy treatment when he appeared to receive an elbow in the side of his face to be replaced by Lee Westwood.
Gresley's first chance came on 23 minutes when Tom Groves' corner from the left found Matt Millns but his header went wide of the mark.
The Nailers should have gone ahead on the half hour from a corner but Ashley Foyle somehow managed to put the ball wide of a gaping goal from just a few yards out.
On 40 minutes Ravi Sangha made a good run down the before send over an inviting cross that Carl Slater could only head wide.
The home side went extremely close to taking a first half lead when Gresley's Nick Carter skimming header looked to be heading towards his own goal but Whittle did very well to get a fingertip to the ball and put it over the bar.
Within a few minutes of the second half it was Gresley's turn to go close. A long throw by Millns was only half cleared as far as Slater who returned the ball back to Millns. The defender's cross found Dan Sleath who's first time shot only just cleared the bar.
On 53 minutes Gresley went close again when a superb cross-field ball from Carter found Groves but Nailers' keeper Andy Carner did well to block the vicious volley but Sangha could not capitalise on the rebound and put his shot over the bar.
The game was still struggling to really get going and on 77 minutes Gresley's Colin Hoyle failed to clear a ball leaving Martin Drury a shot on goal that he put wide.
A scoreless draw looked to be on the cards but all that changed in the 79th minute. A ball down the right to Hannah was about to be dealt with by Millns but he was fouled by the striker but amazingly referee Mr Manton nor his assistant saw the incident and allowed Hannah to go on and beat Hoyle and Whittle scoring with a low shot. Millns was furious with the decision, or rather lack of one, and received a yellow card for complaining.
The home side could have doubled their score four minutes later when Hannah sent Andy Rushbury down the right. The shot was blocked by Whittle but the rebound was volleyed over the bar.
The game ended on a sour note when Millns, who was still clearly upset about the earlier incident, commented on yet another dubious decision by the linesman and received his second yellow card that resulted in a red for his trouble.
Manager's View
"I thought the lad took his goal well but I thought there was a foul in the build up - a definite foul in the build up. The referee and the linesman have not seen it and it was a bit of bad luck that's gone against us and it's cost us. He took it well when he got himself one-on-one with Colin Hoyle. Matt Millns was the wrong side of him, granted, but there was a definite foul there.
"I questioned the linesman afterwards and he's sort of sitting on the fence a little bit now whether it was or not but at the time it obviously wasn't and that's what matters.
"With having Matt sent off we've played into Belper's hands. I'm disappointed with Matt and we'll deal with that internally.
"We lost Andy Simpson up early on when he took an elbow at the side of the head. I don't think there was anything in it their lad went up for the ball with a straight arm and caught Andy on the side of the jaw. For a while he was having trouble with his vision - I don't think he was concussed but with a head injury you have to err on the side of caution so unfortunately we had to take him off because today I thought he was going to be quite influential today. He's had two cracking games against Buxton and Alsager from our point of view and he was going to build on that but he should be okay for next Saturday.
"I felt there were some positives out of today's game. We are still in the situation and a couple of good results haven't got us out of it. After a scrappy first half I felt we had the better chances, the better clear-cut chances in the second half and Tom except for the one he's had to tip over in the first half from a glancing header has had very little to do. We've had two or three clear-cut things and Ravi's was a big chance. You'd back Ravi nine times out of ten to put that in but it went wide. The wide players had one or two half chances and we know we didn't click on all cylinders today but we were worth at least a point and on balance of play and the clear-cut chances the win.
"But as often happens in football you don't quite get it. We had it when we went away to Bradford and we came away with three points and everyone was scratching their heads wondering how and why. We had it similarly here last season. We played some cracking football here last year without really having that cutting edge and ended up losing two-one.
"We missed Aaron today chiefly for his pace because there were some good balls played today in the back of their defence and behind their defence and one of Aaron's biggest assets is his pace and we sorely missed that today.
"We were hoping maybe Ady Francis could go on for the last twenty, twenty five minutes and just give us that in behind but he just didn't get going today."
