UniBond League Division One
The Moat Ground, Church Gresley
Saturday, 5th January 2008, 3.00pm
Winning Streak Continues
Gresley Rovers extended their winning run in the league to six games with a victory over Quorn at the Moat Ground.
Rovers got off to the best of starts taking the lead with only 43 seconds showing on the clock. Shaun Ridgway managed to shrug off the attention of Sam Carter before laying on a pass for Danny Blair who cut inside the box and fired a curling shot past Dan Haystead and into the top far corner of the net.
Quorn were visibly shell-shocked and while trying to recover their composure Rovers doubled the lead four minutes later.
Stefan Marshall made a good run towards the visitors' goal and picked out David Blenkinsopp whose first time shot was blocked at the near post by Haystead.
Ridgway seized on the rebound and instead of trying a shot he cleverly lobbed over a cross that Marshall powerfully headed into the net.
The Dons struck back and Rovers' keeper David Clarke did well to get a good fist on Liam Turner's shot. Moussa Sylla then went close firing a volley just wide of the far top corner.
On 16 minutes a superb through ball from Jordan Lambert put Blenkinsopp in on goal but Haystead stood his ground and blocked the shot with his legs and the rebound was blasted over the bar by Lambert.
Clarke needed to be alert when Nigel Julien tried his had with a long-range effort with the keeper grabbing the ball out of the air spectacularly.
Miles Chamberlain almost got on the score sheet when he powered a header marginally over the bar from Blair's corner.
Julien was unlucky not to have reduced the margin minutes before the break when he managed to get behind the Rovers' defence but his shot went across the face of the goal and the wrong side of the far post.
Rovers had the first chance of the second period when Blenkinsopp flashed a shot across Haystead's goal but it was The Dons who scored next.
Former Moatman Sylla was fortunate to get the ball just outside the Rovers' area. He took a couple of strides before sending a low shot that flew through a forest of legs giving Clarke no chance as the ball went past him into the bottom far corner.
Action at the other end saw Chamberlain flicking a header just wide before a swift break from Quorn ended with Clarke making a superb save to deny Turner and captain Tom Groves bravely blocking has the striker looked to blast home the rebound from close in.
With Quorn pushing forward Blenkinsopp restored the two-goal margin. The prolific striker made a run into the right side of the Quorn area only to be upended by a clumsy tackle by Carter, who amazingly didn't receive a yellow card for his poor attempt, and referee Mr Grundy didn't hesitate pointing to the spot.
Blenkinsopp took the kick himself and despite Haystead getting a decent touch the ball ended up in the bottom corner for the striker's twenty-first goal of the campaign.
A cheeky backheel from Turner clattered the base of Rovers' post and as Sylla looked to pounce Clarke gathered at his feet much to the relief of the Moat Ground faithful.
The last say went to the visitors but it was too little too late as Sylla tried to poke the ball past Clarke but the keeper was up to the task pushing the ball away at the far post.
Manager's View
"I was pleased with the three points. I thought they were hard earned; thought they were deserved.
"It was a superb first half performance and I was a little bit nervous at half time two-nil up because I felt we'd left the backdoor open for Quorn to have come in.
"I thought having got a fantastic start, in fact I missed it. I was a little behind with my preparations and I've come out and I heard the roar and I couldn't believe it. I didn't think we'd kicked off so I missed the first goal and then to get a second goal in the manner we did so early in the game obviously gave us a platform.
"I thought some of our football - it was direct but we'd had Quorn watched and they'd had a bit of a setback in the morning losing their manager when Pete McGurk had resigned but I kept that from the lads I didn't want anything to disrupt our preparation for the game, and we applied the pressure.
"I thought we were wasteful because we had two or three chances to get the third goal that would have given us a little bit of a cushion and as we didn't the second half was always going to be a nervy affair.
"When we conceded the goal after giving it away - Stef (Marshall) had a sublime bit of skill and then gave it away and they hit us and Moussa Sylla has come into the box with his left foot and fired a nice goal in and it made it interesting.
"For ten or fifteen minutes we were off it and Quorn had started to get a foothold in the game. Their skipper started to knit things together nicely in front of our midfield and behind our midfield and a bit of resilience was called for that I know we have in our locker and then fortunately Dave (Blenkinsopp) has took a little bit of pressure off us going down the right and getting the penalty and just about converting it. So it was a very pleasing three points.
"The save Dave (Clarke) made was possibly one of the best in his time at Gresley, absolutely fantastic save and I genuinely expected the net to bulge. Dave made himself big and then an equally big cover from Tom Groves on the rebound and that for me was the turning point of the game because had they come back from two-nil to two-two it would have given us a big mountain to climb
"We've got one or two players who are a little bit down on fitness, Danny Blair for example. To be honest he wasn't in my thoughts when I woke up this morning as I thought he needed another week of fitness work to get him back but we liked what we saw in training on Thursday night and we decided to go with him and to get an hour out of him. He scored after thirty seconds so it proved to be an excellent decision.
"Blair lasted sixty-seven minutes and Chris (Mawbey) came on to give us some fresh legs but unfortunately he got stretchered off within a few minutes of going on but I'm pleased to report, fingers crossed that it's nothing serious. He's putting weight on his knee now and we think it was just a bang and we think he's going to come back from that.
"Shaun Ridgway was at training on Thursday but we kept him out activity wise because he was complaining of a very tight groin. I spoke to him this morning and he said it was okay and was fit to play but we were obviously mindful that he'd got this groin problem and we were going to take him off at half time but I thought he was having a good game playing in there with Jordan (Lambert) so we decided to give it five or ten minutes in the second half and we've got a good week off now with no games only hard training so we can get Shaun some treatment and hopes the groin clears up.
"We had an ideal replacement in Carl Slater who had played magnificently for us at Shepshed. We didn't think he could have got through ninety-minutes but he did. He trained with the lads on Thursday and he was still a little bit stiff and tight but what a fantastic replacement to send on. Those three are really giving us something and a bit of a battle in midfield.
"Ridgway's workrate and endeavour is good and if anything I was a little critical of him at halftime with his range of passing because he got the ball into good situations and was a little careless but he gets us going.
"We had Quorn on the rack and with a little more care in our passing behind the back four from Shaun and from Jordan and even from fullbacks I really felt that we could have gone on and killed the game.
"It's been a while since we won a game by a two goal margin and it's a little bit easier on the bench when you go into injury time two goals up but nonetheless the lads are delighted in the dressing room and if you stood outside you could have heard the reaction of the guys. But, we've got to keep our feet on the ground, working hard. I've had tough job last night and this morning deciding what lads to pick "
