UniBond League Division One South
The Moat Ground, Church Gresley
Saturday, 28th March 2009, 3.00pm
All Square At The Moat
This ended up a very entertaining game with action at both ends of the pitch but for the first fifteen to twenty minutes it was anything but for the home side.
Gresley Rovers started off looking very out of sorts and soon found themselves two-nil down.
Kidsgrove started strongly forcing two quick corners and on 7 minutes they took the lead.
Athletic's Tim Sanders made a good move down the left and sent over a low cross to Liam Shotton who slotted the ball past Rovers' keeper Simon Baldwin and into the far corner.
Shotton then doubled his side's lead on 15 minutes when he got on the end of Sanders' cross to easily head past the stranded Baldwin.
Two minutes later the game should have been well out of the home side's grasp when a cross from Danny Skelton picked out Sanders who should really have scored but somehow managed to skew his shot wide.
Rovers eventually started to get back into the game winning two corners in quick succession and it was from one of these that Rovers managed to reduce the deficit.
John Shales slung over the flag kick from the right and eventually Carl Timms was on hand to force the ball home from close in.
For the rest of the half Rovers were clearly on top and should have at least levelled the proceedings. First a scramble in the Kidsgrove box saw a hurried half clearance that landed at Jordi Gough's feet but the youngster could only put his shot over the bar.
Minutes later the visiting defence were once more in a state of panic in their own area but Rovers' just could not get the vital touch to punish them.
However, on 33 minutes Rovers almost equalised when a superb diagonal cross from Gough on the left picked out Timms at the far post and just as it looked that the home side had scored their deserved goal a tremendous save from visiting keeper Steve Intihar pushed the powerful header away for a corner.
Rovers came out for the second half determined to get something from the game and it almost arrived within four minutes of the restart. Lee Fell's pass sent Chris Knight forward and his goal bound shot was deflected just past the post.
Continued pressure looked bound to produce success and it came on 56 minutes. A corner from the right by Shales was missed by the keeper and Fell looped a header that was heading to the top corner but Athletic's midfielder Mitch Shenton reached up and tipped the ball over the bar giving referee Mr Patterson no alternative but to show a straight red card and award the penalty.
Jamie Barrett to responsibility and blasted a perfect spot kick sending the keeper the wrong way.
Rovers' should have taken control of the game but Athletic dug in and proved to be dangerous as well as stubborn. Indeed they went inches from regaining the lead when Danny Smith hit a thunderous shot that cannoned off the post with Baldwin beaten.
Barrett almost gifted the visitors a goal when his strong back pass went past Baldwin leaving the keeper to race back towards his goal and thankfully get his foot to the ball which was inches from crossing the line and pushing it away for a corner.
Athletic did get back the lead through a moment of indecision. Trevor Benjamin was two yards offside when he collected a through ball and with Rovers' defender James Davies appearing to wait for the whistle allowed the experienced striker to lift a the ball to Shotton at the far post to complete his hat trick heading the ball home.
Rovers to their credit didn't give up and continued to look the most dangerous going forward with Knight firing fractionally wide and Fell putting a shot just over the bar.
Time was almost up when Rovers got their much-deserved point. A long ball from Davies was slung into the Kidsgrove area and Barrett was on hand to hammer a shot that was well blocked by Intihar but substitute Nathan Rolph volleyed the rebound back into the net much to the joy of management and supporters. The referee blew for time straight after the restart.
Manager's View
"When we started to play after ten or so minutes after the second goal went in we did very, very well. The important thing, the turning point was getting one of the two goals back we were behind back fairly early in the first half.
"After that as an attacking unit Kidsgrove weren't really in it for the rest of the first half. We did well, we got the ball into their box and they looked a little bit shaky. They perhaps looked as shaky at the back for that period of the game as we did in the first ten minutes and the keeper has pulled off a fantastic save from Jordi Gough's diagonal ball to Carl Timms who did extremely well to keep his effort down and we were all off the bench thinking it was a goal.
"We wanted to keep the same momentum going against the wind and uphill in the second half that was always going to be difficult, but I felt we did that and we finally got an effort on target and the guy's tipped it over and obviously they had a man sent off and we managed to equalise from the penalty.
"It was important then to go on and turn the screw and I don't think we did. I don't think we really turned the screw and imposed ourselves. They were fairly organised with men behind the ball and their third goal Trevor Benjamin was standing two or three yards offside and I think James (Davies) has heard the call that he's offside but you play on until you hear that whistle regardless of whether he's offside or not and that meant that James was a little bit off in terms of not being tight enough to Benjamin for the cross. But we saw in the first half that when he's got isolated in wide areas he's only got to shift it half a yard and he can deliver a great ball into the box.
"The disappointing thing was, and I was shouting from the bench, you could see the number nine, Shotton, unmarked. Both my centre halves were aware of him but obviously sat a little too deep and not expecting the quality of ball that came in and Shotton had a simple header that looked to have been the winner.
"We showed great character and credit to the lads. Lee Fell had another big chance and failed to hit the target again but young Nathan Rolph has saved the day for us with a fantastic take.
"It's a combination of disappointment because when they went down to ten men and we've come back to two-two we could have taken three points but from what was the last kick of the game to get our first point at home since we reformed the side is a huge boost to us and we've just learnt that Brigg have lost two-one at Willenhall so we are delighted with the point today.
"The back pass incident was a lack of communication between Jamie Barrett and Simon Baldwin and the back pass has gone by the keeper. Usually it would have been a simple turn round and get it but the ground is so hard it seemed to run away from him. It was almost like the QE 2 turning but once he'd (Baldwin) turned and got his pace fortunately with the wind behind him as well it was last ditch because it looked like it was going to go in but credit to him we can laugh about it now but had it gone in I don't think I'd have been laughing too much and in the end he did well to turn it past the post.
"After the last two performances I was tearing my hair out on the bench because exactly the same happened against Brigg when we'd had a positive result the week before and I don't know if we look at the games we play in and think 'oh Kidsgrove are down there near us only a position above us. Or Brigg were below us, we just turn up, we'd played well the previous two games, and we win.'
"It's frustrating because we prepared in the same way as we normally do. We tried to get the guys up for the importance of the game and we felt of the remaining games this was the best opportunity if we were going to get that elusive win and yet we started the game so sloppily, not just the back four but all over the park.
"At times Kidsgrove looked as if they had an extra man or two because we weren't tracking players. Our discipline and shape when they had the ball wasn't there and we seemed to be a yard or so off but pleasingly we managed to get that sorted and we galvanised a bit more at half time.
"It was a disappointing start to the game that we felt we could have won and obviously coming back from two down to get a point was pleasing. At one stage we could have collapsed in that first twenty minutes or so but pleasingly we didn't, we showed a lot of character and we are delighted.
"The frustrating thing is that we have to compete at our best every week for ninety minute if we are going to get anything out the games. We were saying in the team talk that a five minute spell or a little mistake here or there or a sloppy ten minutes and they have been the main things that have led to us not winning games or certainly losing the games.
"We need ninety four plus a game where we are minimising mistakes and we are keeping teams on the front foot. The pleasing thing today though, because we've used fitness as perhaps a reason in the past that we've lost games late on, was that we've finished the game in the ascendancy. Yes, they only had ten men but we had plenty of running left at the end and that was a pleasing thing as well."
