FA Cup Preliminary Round
St George's Lane, Worcester
Sunday, 2nd September 2007, 3.00pm
Robins Rock The Rovers
Gresley Rovers' FA Cup run was ended at St George's Lane with a disastrous goal in the third minute of second half injury time.
Still with many of the first team out of action, the latest being recent signing striker David Blenkinsopp and fellow striker Paul Edwards, manager Gary Norton gave Morgan Hurley who has recently recovered from injury himself his first team debut.
Rovers struggled to even put a shot on target but the hosts went close on several occasions with a goal line clearance and Rovers' keeper David Clarke making some fine saves.
Evesham, playing at Worcester City's ground while they wait the construction of a new stadium, opened the game well and should have gone ahead after just 2 minutes but Mark Owen's free header from Simon Fitter's cross was a soft effort going straight into Clarke's arms.
Rovers had a decent penalty shout turned down on 10 minutes after Evesham's keeper Nathan Vaughan appeared to foul Jamie Hood as he collected a high ball in the area. The assistant referee waved and indicated a penalty but amazingly his flagging was totally ignored by referee Mr Perry who then continued to put in a poor display.
On 16 minutes Shaun Ridgway made a good run through the middle only to put his final shot just wide.
Two minutes later Steve Lutz fired in a shot from Fitter's corner but Rovers' defender Dan Douglas blocked the ball on the line and cleared the danger.
Rovers' resorted to firing long-range shot's with Tom Groves putting his attempt well over the bar.
Owen went close again for the Robins on 28 minutes but put his free header over the bar when well placed.
The first half ended with the Robins well on top and Joe Clarke tried his hand curling a shot from the right just past the far post.
Rovers started the second period brightly with Hurley making a good run down the left on 59 minutes but Groves could only put the cross over the bar. Minutes later Groves again tried his luck with a long-range shot that flew high over the target.
Tony Hemmings replaced Chris Sleath on the hour as Norton tried to get a cutting edge to his side that had up to that point failed to test the Robins' keeper.
Ridgway shot wide before Hemmings who had done well to shake off the attentions of the home defence, fired over.
On 80 minutes it looked like the deadlock had been broken when Owen hit a good shot that took a deflection off Hood but Clarke did very well to make the save flinging himself to his left.
A minute later a decent move from Rovers saw Karl Payne make a good run down the right and send over a cross to substitute Bernard Finkle who put his first time shot wide of the near post.
Owen thought he'd won the game on 90 minutes when he hit a shot on the turn that appeared to have beaten Clarke but the keeper dived full length to his left tipping the goal bound shot wide of his far post.
Just has it looked as if Rovers had done enough to bring the Robins back to the Moat Ground they were undone buy a giant slice of back luck in the third minute of injury time.
A long ball over the back line into the Rovers's area saw Clarke having to race out of his goal. The keeper managed to get to the ball but clattered his shot against the legs Owen who managed to roll the ball into the empty net.
Manager's View
"It's harsh losing in the manner we did, heartbreaking to be honest. It was the FA Cup and we desperately a decent run in it this year.
"We had to get among a few people at half time because first half we were very much carrying on from the Nantwich game. All over the park we were sloppy. We weren't tight enough; our passing was very, very poor.
"The second half we dug in and we battled and they (Evesham) didn't create anywhere near the amount of chances that they did in the first half. We dug in, we battled and to lose a goal in the manner we did by pressing the self-destruct button deep, deep into injury time was soul destroying as a manager.
"I genuinely thought we were going to get our first clean sheet - a fortunate clean sheet it would have been, granted. But second half we looked a little bit more harder to break down and going forward we looked a little bit more of a threat because in the first half we were pretty much non-existent as an offensive threat.
"Dave (Clarke) brought off a superb save on the stroke of full time to keep us in it and a mix-up between Martyn (Rowntree) and Dave led to the events of them getting the winning goal.
"It's easy to criticise isn't it? Had he (Clarke) not have made the save a minute earlier then the game would have already been over.
"We've spoken to the lads in the dressing room - Dave wasn't just to blame for that one. As a unit defensively we put ourselves under that pressure - you'd have thought it was comfortable and we'd have got rid of it but the nine (Mark Owen) put us under immense pressure a seemingly lost cause and he's ended up getting the fortune of the spin of the ball and it spun into his path to tap it in.
"Literally the spin of a ball has knocked out of the FA Cup. Had the ball spun the other way Dave would have had it.
"Morgan Hurley was a plus today. He did okay, he just ran out of steam at the end. He looked okay in patches and was a threat but we've got to get him a bit fitter.
"Although with all the players we had out, the lads out there today worked their socks off and didn't get their just rewards. Karl Payne put a great shift in up front. Karl's playing for nothing for us and that's the testament to the type of player he is, he doesn't want money he just wants to play."
