Pre-Season Friendly
The Moat Ground, Church Gresley
Saturday, 8th August 2009, 3.00pm
Gresley Ease To A Final Pre-Season Victory
Gresley ended their pre-season preparations with a comfortable win against Welsh League side Pontypridd Town at the Moat Ground.
After going a goal down midway through the first half, goals from Rob Spencer, Royce Torville, Adam Betteridge and Andy Elliott saw the home side ease to victory.
Town's Ian Taylor looked lively early on forcing Gresley keeper Simon Baldwin to block an effort with his legs but minutes later the home side responded with Spencer having a shot blocked at the other end.
The visitors took the lead on 20 minutes as a result of some sloppy play. Baldwin under no pressure threw the ball to Carl Slater it was woefully short and Taylor pounced ran on and slipped the ball past the keeper.
Two minutes later they all most doubled their advantage when Tom Anderson-Dixon's run down the right ended with a vicious shot to the top corner that Baldwin did very well to push away.
Spencer then picked out Mickey Lyons who's first time shot was brilliantly tipped over the bar by Leighton James.
The lead only lasted eight minutes when the impressive Woodall made his way down the right and fired a low ball into the box where Spencer nipped in front of the keeper to tap the ball home.
Gresley took the lead on 51 minutes. Lyons' run down the right ended with a terrific shot that James could only parry but Torville reacted quickly to slot the ball home.
Town appeared to be fading and a combination of the warm sunshine and Woodall bewitching their players with all sorts of trickery on the ball Gresley began to dominate the game.
Woodall provided substitute Andy Elliott with a chance that went wide and then after a mazy run down the right Woodall it took a latch ditch tackle to prevent yet another chance on goal.
From the resulting corner Jamie Barrett was unlucky to see his header clear the bar but a minute Gresley increased their advantage.
On 79 minutes Woodall cracked a shot that James brilliantly blocked but the ball fell to substitute Adam Betteridge who coolly chipped the keeper and into the far corner.
Another good passing move from Gresley saw Hill pick out Elliott at the far post and he duly obliged with a simple tap in.
With time running out Taylor flashed a shot wide and Adam Betteridge an effort well blocked by James.
Manager's View
"It was nice to get the win although it was a frustrating afternoon to be honest. We didn't get the ball going as we had done at Belper. Obviously the conditions were the reason for that, very hot a very humid day.
"It's a lovely pitch but it's very dry and we couldn't quite get the ball moving but we stuck at it and we recovered from giving a sloppy goal away.
"We said to Simon (Baldwin) that if we were going to distribute the ball from the back we've got to pick and chose our moments but to play it to your central midfield player when he's under pressure isn't the moment. Hopefully he's learnt from that giving a sloppy goal away.
"We recovered all right and won the game but you can't take too much from that performance because it was a hot day and we were just trying to make sure we got through without any injuries ahead of Tuesday and hopefully we've done that.
"We are very much looking forward to our first home game on Tuesday. It's been a long old pre-season and we've probably had too many games in the last week or so and it's meant we have had much opportunity to do any work on the training pitch.
"What we have done is to get some pitch time into a lot of the lads, fitness minutes. We were in early today to work on a few corners which frustratingly we should have scored a couple today from corners.
"The delivery was good and the movement but a bit wastefulness in finishing in front of goal. We wanted to be taking those chances. Maybe next week we will have them in and work on finishing the corners we set up out there.
"We are there now and we're much looking forward to Tuesday. The only injury concern we have is Stefan Marshall who tried to go for a run on a running machine this morning and when he opened up a little bit he could feel his hamstring so we told him not to report in and we'll have a look at him before Tuesday. Perhaps it will be too soon for him but the signing of Brian Woodall is timely in that respect so we will not miss Stef too much if he is out on Tuesday."
