UniBond League Division One South
The Stan Brown Stadium, Kidsgrove
Saturday, 3rd November 2007, 3.00pm
Rovers Hang On For The Points
The travelling Gresley Rovers support must have left The Stan Brown Stadium devoid of fingernails on either hand as the Moatmen were made to hang on at the end to claim their second away win of the season.
Kidsgrove came out for the first half quickly putting the Rovers' defence under pressure and could have taken the lead as early as the second minute.
A high ball found Michael Lennon who in turn picked out strike partner Andy Bott. The first time shot was well blocked by Rovers' keeper David Clarke at his near post. The rebound went back to Lennon who this time lifted the ball high towards the far post where Ashley Hill headed over from close in.
Lennon was involved again seconds later when he hit a low shot on the turn that Clarke did well to hold.
Kidsgrove thought they had won a penalty when Nicky Clarke tripped Phil Hadland but the referee thought the foul was on the edge of the area - Steve Pope hit his shot well wide.
Rovers began to get back into the game and forced a series of corners all taken by Ridgway. One of them almost led to a Rovers' goal. The corner was only half cleared as far as Chris Sleath who looped a ball towards the near post where Stefan Marshall was able to flick on a header on target that hit a defender and away for another corner.
Minutes before the break Kidsgrove went even closer to scoring but Lennon's shot was blocked by Carl Slater.
With the half time whistle close, Kidsgrove were extremely lucky not to have been reduced to ten men. Rovers' striker David Blenkisopp turned Craig Lovatt but as he started to sprint away towards goal with no other home defender in the vicinity the midfielder, seeing the danger, grabbed hold of Blenkinsopp despite him being the last defender and hauled him back. The referee amazed everyone by only showing a yellow card much to the relief of the midfielder who had resigned himself to an early bath and the disgust of everyone associated with the visitors.
Rovers came out for the second half looking far more determined and took an early lead within three minutes.
A corner from the right by Ridgway was met by Hood who's powerful header left home keeper James Coates rooted to the spot.
Five minutes later the visitors had doubled their lead. Chris Mawbey fed a superb ball down the left to Marshall who beat his marker close to the bye line and cut into the box before laying the ball back for Ridgway to hammer home a thunderous right footed shot from 18 yards.
Seconds later they could have made it three when a long clearance from Martyn Rowntree found Blenkinsopp who beat Pope before hitting a low shot that Coates did well to block.
Kidsgrove were stung by losing two quick goals and hit back ferociously piling pressure onto the Rovers' backline who were beginning to defend deeper and deeper.
On 64 minutes Bott was allowed space to head the ball goalwards but Clarke did well to tip the ball away.
Minutes later Clarke was in action again when a corner from the left by Hadland was only half cleared and the ball was pushed back into the danger area where Kidsgrove substitute Aiden Matranga was able to fire a shot that the keeper superbly tipped round the post.
Sleath relieved some of the pressure for Rovers when a good footballing move ended with a corner. Ridgway's corner found Sleath but his shot from the edge of the box went fractionally the wrong side of the post.
Back came Kidsgrove and Hood had to clear Mawbey's deflection from Hadlands corner off his own line with Clarke managing to grab the loose ball.
It was inevitable that the intense home pressure would pay off and it did on with just four minutes of normal time remaining. Rovers' were being forced to defend deep but couldn't deal with a ball that was helped on into the box by Hill. Pope got behind the defender and drilled a low shot across Clarke and into the far corner.
It was all hands to the pump for Rovers, as brave defending was needed to repel wave after wave of attacks on their goal.
Just has it looked that the home side had grabbed a late leveller up popped Slater to head the ball off the line after Clarke had been beaten by Anthony Kielty's header from Hadlands corner.
Manager's View
"I thought their man-of-the-match was the ref to be honest. We had the game by the scruff of the neck and we were playing superbly well in the second half controlling the game and the referee then decided 'oh let's see if we can give Kidsgrove an opportunity in this game' and started giving random free kicks to the opposition.
"And of course they are going to put you under pressure they've got a great delivery from free kicks. I'm being slightly ironic of course. As a manager you always look at it that way when you're on the rough end of things.
"We didn't help ourselves when we went two-nil up, we had a mad five minutes when were giving free kicks away for fun. As I said we know what quality Kidsgrove has from the set play deliveries and they put us under pressure.
"At one stage I sent Hemmo (Tony Hemmings) on as physio to treat Blenko (David Blenkinsopp) to give some calming influence out there and to get some messages on board and just calm us down a little bit and that seemed to work. We then had a ten minute spell where we were playing as an away side two-nil up should play controlling the game not over risking things but dealing with things pretty well at the back.
"We were then under a little pressure again, they are throwing everything forward. We could see Chris Mawbey has had a knock and is limping and we were shouting for thirty seconds at the linesman who was talking to somebody behind him whether it was their dugout or someone in the crowd and didn't get his attention. Then during the next phase their No5 has got in behind Chris Mawbey and scored. I was really frustrated at that one because we could have nipped that in the bud because we could see Chris was struggling.
"If the officials had been paying attention maybe that wouldn't have happened.
"Credit to Kidsgrove they gave it a real good shot and talking to their gaffer he felt they should have had a penalty in the first half where he felt it was in the box. Nick (Carter) has assured me that it wasn't and he even got the ball so I was pleased that wasn't given because we'd started the game sloppy. Our first five minutes we didn't start very well. Kidsgrove had two or three very good opportunities or half opportunities in that first five minutes Fortunately that galvanised and woke us up a little bit and we were fairly solid for the rest of the half defensively.
"It was a scrap, a battle and some good football played by both sides. I was pleased with some of the football we played - some fantastic stuff.
"Jamie (Hood) deserved his goal and fantastic movement from Stefan Marshall teeing Shaun (Ridgway) up for the second goal so I pleased with the afternoon's work and the three points.
"The two early goals in the second half did take a lot of pressure off us but at Gresley Rovers you are never comfortable at two-nil up as seen against Brigg a few short weeks ago so having to weather that last few minutes defensively was very nerve wracking for us but we managed to come through it.
"We've seen a lot of character in the side today to bounce back from the comments I made after the Belper game where I questioned the character in the side for the first time this season. But we've shown it in abundance again today pleasingly.
"I think that's four wins in the league on the bounce and I think we are eight points better off than this time last season after the same number of games. On a fraction of the finances we've assembled this squad and there is a good work ethic there. We lack quality at times. Dave Blenkinsopp's made some fantastic runs today and we've not found him and I really felt sorry for him because he worked his socks off, some great movement and we lacked little bit's of quality at times to give him some scraps to feed on.
"The one thing in the side this year is the will to try and work hard and I was pleased with that performance on the back of the disappointing one at Belper."
