Pre-Season Friendly
Christchurch Meadow, Belper
Thursday, 6th August 2009, 7.45pm
High Scoring Draw At Christchurch Meadow
This was an entertaining pre-season friendly played in the right spirit and in the end eight goals shared between the two teams.
Belper Town are one of the favourites to win the UniBond Division One South and promotion which they agonisingly missed out on last season and they soon had their visitors under pressure.
On 6 minutes Gresley keeper Simon Baldwin had to tip an effort from Lee Stevenson over the bar and three minutes later the action was at the other end with Royce Turville having a shot cleared off the line.
For the next 10 minutes The Nailers laid siege to Gresley's goal with Danny Hudson flashing a shot just wide and Simon Barraclough making a fine run into the box only to be denied by the legs of Baldwin.
Belper took the lead on 21 minutes when Lewis Trimmer's shot took a big deflection completely wrong footing Baldwin.
Hudson once more made a run through into the area as the Gresley defence parted but his low shot was saved by Baldwin.
Brian Woodall, making a surprise return to the Gresley side, sent over a superb cross for Turville who controlled the ball, beat his marker and curled a shot that fractionally missed the far post.
Woodall was involved again on 28 minutes when he capitalised on a poor clearance and rifled home an unstoppable shot past Nailers' keeper Leigh Walker.
Belper were finding it quite easy to slice open the visiting defence and it took another fine Baldwin block to prevent Barraclough from regaining the lead for his side.
However, it was Gresley who went in front when, after some good inter play, Mickey Lyons lashed the ball into the net despite Walker getting a hand to it.
As the first half drew to a close Belper levelled from a poor defensive header from James Davies that Hudson capitalised on smashing the ball home from just inside the area.
However, Davies made up for his slip when it looked certain that Dean Oliver would score after beating the Gresley back line but the visiting defender reacted well and a superbly timed tackle ensured that the score remained equal at the break.
Within two minutes of the re-start Gresley had two chances to regain the lead. Walker did well to block Jamie Barrett's effort from close in and then Davies' cross picked out Turville who was unlucky to see his effort go agonisingly wide of the far post.
On 56 minutes Callum Keenan made a good run down the left before firing a shot wide of the far post and at the other end a spectacular overhead kick from Anthony Wilson went narrowly over with Luke Fedorenko flicking a header just over minutes later.
Belper took the lead on 71 minutes went Hudson picked out Wilson who had an easy tap in. A carbon copy of the goal saw Gresley back on terms just 3 minutes later. This time is was substitute Chris Burnham who provided the pass from the right for Lyons to sweep into the net.
Gresley went close when Carl Slater slipped a superb ball through for Burnham to run onto down the left but substitute keeper Tom Pressman, quickly off his line, made a fine block.
The lead was back in the visitors' hands with 8 minutes remaining when Burnham picked out Matt Hill down the left who then chipped the onrushing Pressman.
On 90 minutes a corner from the left by Hudson was not cleared in the box and a Gresley defender took Wilson's legs from under him in a rash tackle and the referee had no alternative but to point to the spot. Wilson took the kick himself sending Baldwin the wrong way levelling the game.
Manager's View
"It was a very, very satisfying performance against a good UniBond outfit. It's a lovely place to come, fantastic facilities, a great pitch, good people and hopefully for the supporters a nice entertaining game of football.
"We are very happy with that. I thought our showing in the first half was very good particularly when we got the ball. We were a little bit unhappy defensively on one or two things that we can work on.
"Second half we hung in there but I don't think we've played as well but found ourselves leading going into the last minute of the game. But, probably on reflection a draw was a fair result. I don't think either manager is too fussed about results at this stage it's all about pitch time for players and looking at one or two things.
"We'll have to see how we fare in the league but it's been a long time perhaps since Mickey Lyons has been on the score sheet twice and both with his left peg! The goals tonight were decent. The last goal Chris Burnham has come on and done some great work in the build up for Matt Hill and Brian Woodall has hit a fantastic strike for the goal in the first half so there were some nice goals tonight.
"We were disappointed in the manner of a couple of goals we conceded. James Davies' header back inside for the equaliser in the first half and then right at the end a sloppy penalty given away when we've tried to force the play further up the pitch.
"Yes, it was nice how the goals were spread and we'll see how it goes. We've got goals in the side all over.
"Mr Woodall has put pen to paper for us so obviously we're delighted. I've been very patient with him this summer, speaking to him right at the back of last season and during the summer. We had agreed terms at the start of pre-season and then he had the opportunity to train with Nuneaton and go on trial there but that didn't quite work out.
"He'd said that if things didn't work out there he'd consider signing for us. He likes the club and the only concern he did have was the travelling and when we spoke a couple of weeks ago he was going to give it a go at Coventry. His brother is at Sphinx and it's on his doorstep. Brian had a couple of games down there and didn't fit in and enjoy it so we persuaded him to come down tonight. He's had a cracking performance and he signed forms for us and we are delighted about that.
"Ideally our plan for Saturday (against Pontypridd) you'd be looking to play your starting eleven for Tuesday and if there were any injuries for example Stefan Marshall. Stefan is definitely a consideration for a start up front - we've got to look at things.
"Tonight for example, there are four or five to date who were in contention to start next Tuesday not here. Tom & Adam Betteridge, Stef Marshall, Gareth Langford and one or two others so we are trying to get as many of the side out as possible but if there are any concerns injury wise we will be considering that as well.
"If Stef isn't right we won't risk him it's as simple as that. With Brian signing tonight we have some real good attacking options and as I've said previously, the challenge will be to keep these players happy and it's going to be difficult to do that. Lots of clubs will be looking at the assets we've got and maybe try to tempt one or two away but if that happens we will go out and get some more or have a look in the sides we've got. We've had three lads out of the reserves tonight who finished the game and all did very well. Young Joe Swift it was good experience for him and obviously Andy Dunn and Chris Burnham whose done well whenever he's been called upon in the first team.
"I've said all along that the new league is an unknown quantity and I'm not just saying that I genuinely know very little about the level other than I've been told. I've not seen one game in that league and I'm looking to gain experience from the guys who have played at that level and in that league and from the likes of Martyn Rowe and Simon Van-de-Broucke who've watched a fair bit of football in that league and from Mickey Lyons whose played ten, twelve maybe fifteen games in that league last year as did Tom Betteridge, Rob Spencer and Royce Torville so maybe they can teach me one or two things.
"We don't know what we are going to come up against. We played Meir from step six and then a few days after that we went to Sutton with an experimental side and got rolled three nil so it's difficult to know. We are not getting carried away by any results. We've had three very good results against Coalville, Shepshed and Belper, all sides above us and that stands us in good stead."
