FA Cup 1st Qualifying Round
The Moat Ground, Church Gresley
Saturday, 16th September 2006, 3.00pm
Cup of woe for Gresley
Gresley Rovers were knocked out of the FA Cup at the second hurdle by Midland Alliance club Quorn as their miserable start to the season continued at the Moat Ground.
The Alliance outfit thoroughly deserved their moment of glory as the controlled the game from almost beginning to end with Gresley conjuring up very little up front and yet again showing frailty in defence.
Gresley started lively enough and a cross from Tom Betteridge on 7 minutes needed to be headed over the bar by a visiting defender and three minutes later Shaun Ridgway firing a shot just wide.
The nearest Gresley got to scoring in the first half came on 13 minutes when Quorn keeper Michael Payne kicked his clearance into striker Ady Francis but the ball heading for the empty goal was cleared off the line by Michael Smith.
Andy Simpson had another half chance but headed Carl Slater's corner over when well placed.
Quorn slowly got into the game and took the lead on 22 minutes. Gresley defender Colin Hoyle made a run deep into the Quorn half but Scott Lower easily cut his final pass out allowing the visitors to make a quick break down the right. His cross was helped on by Adam Layfield to Jermaine Gorden and with no defence in place had the comfortable task of slotting a low shot past Tommy Whittle and into the far corner of the net.
Quorn were clearly on top and Gresley empty of any confidence and the visitors had two further chances to increase their lead. Two minutes after their first goal it took a fine save from Whittle to deny Nicholas Green from scoring and a minute later Adam Wigley put a shot just wide of the post.
Gresley were shell-shocked and Quorn were handed another chance to increase their advantage by referee Mr Nobbis. Subsitute Nigel Julien easily beat his markers before playing the ball through to Gorden who's first time shot hit the arm of Ridgway. The referee hashly judged that the midfielder had deliberately blocked the ball with his arm when the ball clearly hit him with no way of avoiding the contact.
However, justice was served when Gorden, trying to put on a show for the crowd, staged a fancy run up before hitting the ball against the bar much to the delight of the Gresley supporters behind the goal and Gorden's embarrasment.
Gresley's best chance of the half came almost on the whistle when Aaron O'Connor, who had been well marked for most of the game, controlled a pass before hitting a ferocious volley that Payne superbly tipped over the bar.
With five minutes of the re-start Gresley had one of their rare chances of the second period but Paul Edwards fired straight at Payne.
Quorn continued their control of the game and on 66 minutes a corner from the left by Gavin O'Toole found the head of Gorden and his attempt on goal was cleared by Slater with what looked like the help of his arm but Hobbis waved away the protests.
There looked like there would be only one winner as the visitors continued to force Gresley back and seconds later Julien fired wide after easily beating his marker.
Gresley were getting more and more desperate with O'Connor firing wide on the turn after 77 minutes.
A minute later Quorn keeper Payne denied Betteridge a chance of putting his side into a possible replay by pushing a save round the near post and away for a corner.
On 81 minutes Julien had a glorious chance to sew up the game but the quicksilver front man lost his composure after collecting a long ball down the left and with only Whittle to beat chose to blast his shot high over the bar and out of the ground.
Gresley had nothing left to offer and looked a well-beaten and demoralised side at the end.
Manager's View
"I'm still in a bit of shock to be honest. I'm stuck for words, I really am. It's been a while since I've been so down about things. I always try and remain positive about things and I've tried to look for positives out of today but there aren't any.
"There is a lot of soul searching going on at the minute. To be fair to the supporters' reaction at full time it falls on my shoulders - it's my responsibility. We've been written off before and I've been personally written off many times in my four seasons here. All I need is a couple of days to think about things and freshen things up and I've gone round individually and spoken to every player so that they are under no illusion personally, individually what I think of them and their input this season. Last season as gone and I'm sick of hearing about last season and getting to the play off final. The players that got us there last season are not delivering this season and if that means it's my fault that players who were playing fantastically, exciting, creative, battling at times football last season last season to get us to the play off final and not delivering after eight or nine games this season. I can't believe it's the same set of players.
"I've just spoken to each player individually whether they were playing or not and given them my personal view. I keep asking for a reaction but yet another game and we've had none.
"I feel under pressure because I'm a very proud man. If people are thinking I should go it happens at every football club. I remember the season before last Ilkeston Town got promoted eight games in having lost an FA Cup game; Phil (Stant) gets the sack. But that decision is totally out of my hands. It's up to the chairman and the board. They know how hard I work; they know what me, Mick and Tony think of the club and how passionate we are about the club but if they feel as though that a change is due that's totally their decision, I can't affect that. What I can affect is what's happening on the pitch. I will not resign - absolutely no way about that - no question of that I will not resign. I'm a grafter and I'm learning all the time. At the moment this is the most testing time of my time at Gresley but having said that I've had similar slumps in results. The problem is that it's right at the start of the season. In previous slumps we've perhaps been unlucky in patches because we've played some half decent football or maybe of luck has not gone with us. We looked woeful today. Tuesday night, apart from the first twenty minutes, we were woeful and we have a hell of a lot of work to do. If people think it's time for a change that's their personal opinion. I said how pleased I was at the supporters' reactions after the Ossett game and to be fair I can't really have any problems about the supporters' comments today. I'm big enough to accept that and take it on the chin. It's all a part of me developing as a character. It's not nice to hear but I'll take that flack on behalf of the players and will continue to work with those players that want to be around the place.
"There is hell of a lot of work to be done, probably more than we thought because we are now nine games into the season and the players, as I keep saying, are good players - we saw that last season. Yes we are low on confidence results do that to you but we are way off were we need to be and the players now know.
"Losing Gary White so early didn't help. He felt the injury slightly in warm-up but he did say it was only a niggle so for it to go so soon into the game was frustrating for us. Whether that's any fault of ours for risking him or Gary's for not telling us how tight things were I don't know. At the end of the day he felt just a slight problem in the warm up. Gary's the sort of player who has very tight hamstrings so we've been used to that before but he's got through games without problems. But you don't know when they are going to go. It's gone today and it was not the ideal start and it limited our substitution wise because we only have two left. We had to be careful for the third one because with so long to go we now that if we pick an injury up we would be playing with ten men.
"We thought our luck would swing. When you're one-nil down and you get a penalty against you which I thought was harsh - ball to hand - but that's bye the bye because the referee has given it. It came off the bar and you think that's the little bit of luck we need but they had some very good chances.
"Take nothing away from Quorn because they are a good footballing side but when you allow them time and space to play like that - at times it was like a training match - with a couple of players missing they looked like, particularly in the first half, they had a man or two more than us. Chances went begging and you thought something would drop but it didn't look like it. We had a couple of snap shots and a couple of half bits and bobs but we were clutching at straws if we think they are going to get us into games and win us games. We did have a bit of luck but we didn't make it count. The least I could have hoped for was to snatch a replay and that would have been unjust if I'm totally honest.
"They are a league below and Malvern Town who are also a league above them found to their cost by losing three nil against them in the last round so we had them watched and knew what a good side they would be. But if you give any side that time and space as we found out against South Normanton who were two leagues below us, they play good football. It's difficult to choose between either the first half against South Normanton or the first half today which was the worst performance of the season."
