UniBond League Division One South
South Kesteven Stadium, Grantham
Saturday, 1st December 2007, 3.00pm
Heavy Defeat For Moatmen
Gresley Rovers' Jekyll & Hyde season continued at the South Kesteven Stadium against Grantham Town with their heaviest defeat of the season.
After a somewhat fortuitous win midweek against Carlton Town, Rovers were hoping to add to their points tally against a side that were also having an indifferent season so far.
The game started well for the visitors and they could have taken an early lead when Stefan Marshall went close before Nicky Carter tried his luck with a couple of long-range shots that went wide.
Rovers were on top and took the lead on 18 minutes when Carl Slater's ball over the Grantham defence allowed Marshall to beat the offside trap and after controlling the ball and seeing off the attention of home defender Phil Rowland fired past keeper Mario Ziccardi.
Grantham equalised on 30 minutes when the static Gresley defence didn't cut out a long ball by Brendan McDaid that picked out Sam Mullarkey unmarked who then easily beat Miles Chamberlain before smashing a shot past Rovers' keeper David Clarke and in at the far post.
Mullarkey was also instrumental in Grantham taking the lead just before the interval. A moment of very poor defending saw Mullarkey cross a superb ball into the area and Sam Wilkinson hit a first time volley past Clarke.
David Blenkinsopp had a couple of decent chances to get his side back on level terms just after the break.
A good one-two with Jordan Lambert ended with Blenkinsopp's on-target shot deflected by a defender and then the striker fastened onto a long ball but pressure from defender Jon Hawley was enough to allow Ziccardi to block the final shot.
That was just about it for Rovers in terms of chances as Grantham took the game by the scruff of the neck.
On 52 minutes Sean Cann waltzed into the Gresley box after collecting a pass from the impressive Mullarkey and gave Clarke no chance with his shot.
The Gresley defence were all at sea and they fell further behind just after the hour when a quick free kick caught them flat footed and Mullarkey got around the struggling Tom Groves and fired an unstoppable shot past Clarke.
There was only one side in it now and it looked as if Grantham could easily add more to their score especially through Mullarkey.
The fifth goal came with just seven minutes remaining and again it was as a result of some abject defending.
Martyn Rowntree was easily robbed of the ball deep in his own half by Tom Byrne who played a simple ball square for Jason Turner to stick in the net.
To add to Rovers' misery Blenkinsopp, usually a dead cert in front of goal could only fire his injury time shot from six-yards well over the bar after the keeper had blocked Chris Sleath's shot.
Manager's View
"We were awful in the second half and our defending was naive all over the park.
"We started well and for the first 20-30 minutes we got in front and played some decent football.
"We did the little things well, but for some reason we stopped doing that.
"They got 2-1 up and they were both poor goals from our point of view as we did not get tight enough to people.
"At half time I felt confident we could get back in it, but the three goals we gave away in the second half were probably the poorest we've conceded this season."
