Pre-Season Friendly
The Moat Ground, Church Gresley
Saturday, 25th July 2009, 3.00pm
All Square At The Moat Ground
On a sun drenched Moat Ground, Gresley took on neighbours Coalville Town of the Midland Alliance in their fourth pre-season game.
The Ravens are one of the favourites for their league title next season after a good campaign last time but it was the home side who largely had the better of the first half.
As early as the third minute Jamie Barrett was testing visiting keeper Laurie Pearson with a shot to warm his palms.
However, Coalville took the lead somewhat against the run of play nine minutes later.
A quickly taken corner from the right by Lewis Dodd caught Gresley napping and Michael Swan was able to place his header perfectly to beat home keeper Simon Baldwin.
Barrett went close to getting his side back on terms when his shot from just outside the area clipped the top of the bar.
Gresley's equaliser came on 34 minutes when Tom Betteridge made a good run into the area and the ball found Andy Elliott who turned and hit a shot past Pearson.
Minutes later Tom Betteridge almost grabbed Gresley a second goal when a flick on landed inches in front of the player and the chance vanished.
The second half largely belonged to Coalville and they came out of the blocks quickly going close as Swan forced Baldwin into a save after just three minutes of the re-start.
On the hour a shot from Lewis Dodd was blocked on the line by Mark Strezewski as The Ravens pressed forward looking for a goal but Gresley responded and the action flew up to the other end of the pitch where Mickey Lyons flashed a shot fractionally wide.
A corner from Lyons picked out Callum Keenan who put a header wide but it was the visitors who looked more likely to take the lead again.
Both sides made a series of substitutions which disrupted the flow of the game and the game became scrappy for a while.
With ten minutes remaining Tim Wilkes put his header over and James Dodd blazed a shot high over the bar but their pressure did pay off when they took the lead minutes later. A great move down field ended with a vicious shot from Chris Woodhall that smashed the underside of the bar and into the net.
Coalville seemed to have gone to sleep after the goal because Gresley levelled almost immediately when substitute Chris Smith flew down the left but instead of hitting a shot himself he saw the run of Carl Slater to his right and squared the ball to his skipper who duly obliged by smashing a shot into the roof of the net with Pearson a mere spectator.
Manager's View
"We tried a totally new system today and for the most part I felt it worked very, very well. I was delighted with the first half. I thought we passed the ball and moved it well - a little bit at times over passed it in the wrong areas but having said that the Gresley crowd appreciate good football and we are starting to play some decent football.
"We are not always going to be a side who plays it out the back. It's summer, a hot day and we did play it out the back quite a lot today but we know we have that in the locker with the players we have and we'll look at that and try to draw teams out and play through the midfield.
"A draw is great and we're more than happy with the draw but if we'd lost two-one in a friendly as I always say that results don't matter but what a fantastic goal (the equaliser).
"I want to try and get Chris Smith (who laid on the second Gresley goal) some more pitch time but having said that you've got to look at the options you've signed and get them as much pitch time as possible as well but Chris has shown some nice things when he's come on as has the other triallists we still have around. We'll be sitting down with them this week and saying from our point of view what we may be able to offer and see if that's something they want to take up.
"Chris Smith set the goal up really well because he could have gone on himself and got a shot off but he's shown great awareness and seen Carl's (Slater) run and Carl hit a fantastic strike and I've got a little bit more faith in him (Carl) now. Carl wants to score some goals this season.
"We looked at him on the deep point of a diamond today in a more defensive midfield role which I think is a great position for him. He got on the ball a lot and broke things up but you know he's got the ability to get forward and get some shots off so great strike!
"I gave Mark Strezeweski a round of applause as he came off. I'm desperate to persuade him to sign for us. In fairness to him he had ninety minutes last night for Mickleover against Borrowash and he wasn't expecting that and obviously with Chris Mawbey away on holiday we tried to get as much out of as we could without risking him from an injury point of view and he was superb, absolutely superb and for anyone watching today who wasn't aware that he'd had a game last night I think they would have been satisfied with that performance.
"He wants a little bit more time. His pre-season's been a bit disjointed; he's been away on holiday, he's had a couple for sessions with Mickleover, games against lesser opposition and he's had a couple of games for us now but he's not yet trained with us. I wanted a deadline from him this weekend but, in fairness to him, he wants to have another think about it. Mickleover have a game against Rotherham and they may be looking at a stronger side so he wants to see how that shapes up and then we will have our decision. It's frustrating because we know what a good player he is and how close we potentially are to getting him but we've got to be patient for a little bit longer and we'll find out this week.
"Mark wants to play and have the opportunity to play in the UniBond and if he feels that's the right opportunity to do it with Mickleover and other things at the club are right then he'll go and do that and fair play to him.
"From our point of view, we are trying to do something here and a lot of his friends play here, Tom and Adam Betteridge, Mickey Lyons. He gets on well with them and has an affinity with them and goes out with them a lot and he's just said in the dressing room that the two friendlies he's played with us here today and at Mier were very positive performances.
"We have limited resources, which is sensible, and having made an offer to him he's considering it seriously and fair play to him in biding his time and I perhaps do the same if I was in his shoes, but it is frustrating.
"We are hoping Gareth Langford's injury is nothing serious and he can shake it off. He was complaining at half time about a little tight around his abductor area and hip so as a precaution he had to come off. It put us on the back foot a bit with Chris (Mawbey) being away on holiday so we tucked Adam Betteridge across and put Nathan Rolph on.
"At this stage there is no point in risking players. It was the same with Stephan Marshall. I'd have loved to have seen Stephan up front against Tyrone Mintus because physically he had the better of our forwards today and I'd have loved to have paired Steph up there against him and seen what that have brought he's got a bit of a knee problem that flared up after the Newhall game and having spoken to him it was the sensible thing for him not to be involved today. Hopefully, he can shake that off and frustratingly he's working afternoons this week so he'll not be at training on Tuesday and we'll see if he can get a bit of time off to play in the game on Thursday if he's fit. But, as with Gareth, we see no point at his time in the season in taking any risks with any of the players.
"We've played today a very, very good outfit in Coalville. They are very organised and I spoke to Adam before the game and they are looking to build on their achievements last year in the Alliance which is a very competitive league. Mickey Lyons pulled the strings today and he's been up against some very good players and he's looked class. He's found some nice little pockets.
"We had a fifteen minute chat about tactics in the dressing room with the players around the tactics board before the game explaining how we wanted to get Mickey on the ball in those areas. He's a great player and sometimes you lose that class or bit of creativity he has when you play in a flat four. We've had a look at the system we played today and there are a couple of variants to that that we may want to introduce because there may be games that it suits us and there may well be games that the flat four suits us. At the minute we have the options in the squad to accommodate the system we have to play.
"Martin Rowe was at a wedding today of a close friend of his but I'll be on the phone to him later if he can find a bit of time to have a chat. I'm really enjoying working with both Martin and Simon. The energy, the enthusiasm they bring is brilliant. They take a lot of pressure off me in terms of helping me out making calls when I'm at work to players and various things and going to watch games for me as well.
"He's at a wedding today which is a shame because I'd have liked him to have seen that performance because it was very positive but he'll be back in the dugout with Simon and I on Thursday.
"There's a trophy on offer on Thursday with Newhall playing lower down in the pyramid but I've just said to the lads in the dressing room that at the end of the day it is a final and out of respect for Steve Hackett we will be putting a very strong squad out there. We won't be taking any unnecessary risks, if anyone is carrying an injury or is stiff, but we'll go and do our best to try and put on a good show and try and beat Newhall. Obviously, it's their home ground so they will be looking and trying to beat us and put a good show on but regardless of the result it's a warm up for Saturday.
"It will be a great test for us on Saturday because let's not forget our old rivals are now two levels above us and if we can put on a half decent performance as we've done today, regardless of the result, I'll be satisfied. From a supporters point of view they'll be looking that maybe we can edge it and I'm sure the Shepshed guys will have something to say about that.
"Hopefully, the supporters have gone away today with a positive feeling. It is pre-season and I'm sure they're thinking themselves that there's a long way to go yet but with the football we played today against a very good opposition I think most people have gone away with a positive view of it and quietly waiting for next Saturday's game of course not forgetting the Newhall game but really the big test will be the Shepshed, the Belper game and how we shape up against teams two levels above us.
"Frustratingly, perhaps I wanted an extra friendly against a side at our level just to see how we are but we cannot squeeze one in. There's a lot of work to do, we won't hit the ground running on August 11th because it's a new group there are a lot of new players and we've got a lot of shape work we want to do, there is a lot of work we want to do on the training pitch on set plays. The first goal today we weren't organised quickly enough. We have set people certain jobs on set plays and they took it quickly and caught us napping and got their goal in and that's what happens. We've got a lot of work to do to organise ourselves, it would be great to get on to that because we feel we're fit enough but I won't move on to that until we are fit enough."
