Pre-Season Friendly
Kings Park
Saturday, 11th July 2009, 3.00pm
Off To A Good Start
Gresley FC played their first competitive game in a pre-season friendly at Midland Combination Premier side Meir KA.
It was fitting that the scorer of Gresley Rovers' final goal scored the first for Gresley FC. Captain Carl Slater sent keeper Richard Amison the wrong way from the spot after Tom Betteridge had been fouled in the area.
Gresley started strongly with Stefan Marshall firing wide after just 2 minutes but they were in the lead when Slater converted the spot kick on 9 minutes.
Meir, who had beaten a strong Chasetown side three nil in midweek, failed to get going and rarely put the visitors under any sort of pressure. Gresley took firm control of the proceedings with quite a few chances to increase their lead.
One of those chances when a superb ball threaded through the home defence by Mickey Lyons sent Tom Betteridge racing towards goal but a slight deflection put the ball agonisingly the wrong side of the upright.
The resulting corner from James Davies was cleared off the line as Meir looked decidedly unsettled.
On 28 minutes Gresley doubled their tally with Stefan Marshall heading home at the far post.
Marshall then turned provider minutes later sending over a fine cross that Tom Betteridge put just over the bar.
Marshall was causing the Meir defence all sorts of problems and once more getting the better of his marker down the right sent over a cross that picked out Chris Smith who hammered a shot on target that the keeper did well to block with his legs.
With five minutes remaining of the first half Gresley keeper Simon Baldwin was called into some rare action first having to cut out a dangerous cross from the left and then bravely smothering the ball at the feet of striker Nathan Chinshaw who looked odds on to reduce the deficit.
Meir came out for the second period looking far more determined with Chinshaw firing wide almost from the whistle.
Gresley had a clear penalty appeal turned down on 48 minutes when Slater was hacked down from behind a couple of yards into the area and four minutes later they had another good chance but the final shot went straight into the arms of defender Ben Jones who had donned the keeper's jersey to replace the injured Amison at half time.
Marshall made another good run down the left only to have his shot blocked by the legs of Jones and away for a corner. Davies sent over the flag kick from the left and Adam Betteridge was on hand to power his header past the static Jones to increase the visitors' lead.
Minutes later Marshall yet again broke through the home defence but although he slipped the ball past the on rushing Jones, Darren Reaney managed to race back and clear the ball before it crossed the line.
Both sides made changes and with tiredness becoming apparent the game seemed to fizzle out towards the end but Gresley had one more chance to add to their tally but Gareth Langford's effort from Davies' cross flew just over the bar.
Manager's View
"Today served a purpose but I never read anything into pre-season friendlies at all. Having said that in terms of what we wanted from today we wanted to have a look at a few players who've been training with us and few who we've been speaking to and we've managed to do that.
"We wanted to get some pitch time into some legs and as you could see towards the end it was much needed!
"That's what pre-season is all about. It's nice to get wins and we are pleased with the win don't get me wrong and the clean sheet but I'd have been standing here saying the same thing had we been beaten three nil it means nothing.
"Look at Meir the other day, with quite a few changes to their side, they had a cracking result against Chasetown and that in its own right demonstrates what can happen in pre-season.
"Our central defenders Gareth Langford and Mark Stryzewski looked very comfortable although they've not played together before. There was a lot of pairings out there who hadn't played together before so we were pleased with the initial performances of a number of people and within their units.
"As a central defensive partnership they did very well today, tired a little towards the end as everybody did and the game went a little bit ragged for the last fifteen, twenty minutes and coupled with the changes we made.
"We made four or five changes in the second half and it disrupted the tempo a little bit. Even had we kept the same side out there the last twenty minutes would have been a bit of a non event for both sides from a fitness point of view.
"Yes, we were pleased with Gareth and Mark. Gareth has signed for us but Mark hasn't but on that showing that's why we want him to sign for us. We've got our work cut out as a UniBond club, who he's been training with, is interested as well. It's not going to be an easy challenge to get him to sign for us but hopefully he would have been encouraged and pleased today by the bits and bobs he's seen baring in mind that we have a few lads still out. "It was a bit noisy out on the pitch today. We spoke before the game and I had a bit of a go at half time about the fact that it was one or two faces doing a little bit more talking and organising but I don't know whether that was any particular reason for the shouting . Maybe it was because we don't know one another well and we needed to give a bit more information than usual.
"Mark (Stryzewski) always, when he plays, looks commanding and assured. The good thing you saw was when Nathan Rolph came on, who he doesn't know from Adam, you could see Mark talking to him, organising and coaching him through the game which was good to see.
"I was pleased for Carl Slater, who will be captain for the new season. He scored the last goal for Gresley Rovers and the first for Gresley FC - it was quite fitting.
"It was sad to see Anthony (Hemmings) move on. He was quite emotional about it when we had the chat and to quell any rumours it was Anthony's decision to go and yes I did speak to Martin Rowe a few weeks ago and the reason was because Anthony was in the hat for a couple of jobs in the summer.
"Anthony is very accomplished; he's an ex-professional footballer who is going through his badges. He wants to get his Uefa 'A' next and at some point he will take the plunge into management. He had a little look in the summer and I wanted to cover myself in case he got one of the jobs he'd applied for.
"He didn't get either job and we sat down and had a couple of really good conversations about him staying at Gresley and it looked like he was going to stay at Gresley but Anthony felt it was the right time to move on and when someone of his calibre becomes available Rocester reacted quite quickly and he's gone there and the best of luck to him. He's a good friend of mine and he's helping me on my level three badge which I'm on at the moment and we'll remain good friends only unless he doesn't takes too many players because I'm sure there will be one or two players he'll be looking at taking to Rocester so we've got to try and fight that battle when it comes.
"But, Anthony goes with our best wishes. People have got to remember what he did last season. He stayed with the club and like many players and staff lost a lot of money when Gresley Rovers liquidated. He's done great service to the club. I feel I'm personally that I'm losing an opportunity to develop further as a manager having Anthony on the coaching staff because he has some cracking ideas on how to organise sides, how to play tactically and from my point of view I feel I'm missing out a little bit.
"On the flip side Martin's come in and he's totally different. He's very much the old traditional type coach and manager and somebody who is looking to get back into the game and I felt with Anthony gone the void needed filling. When I spoke to him a few weeks ago he said he'd jump at the chance and it was a short conversation we had.
"He's very experienced, got some good contacts and he's a complete opposite to Anthony. Where Anthony is barking and hollering on the touch line talking and coaching the lads through the game Martin is someone who'll take a step back and have time to reflect on things.
"I think between myself, Martin and Simon Van-de-Broucke we have a well balanced management team so I'm looking forward to it.
"When I sat down with Martin the other day and he went back through his career I didn't realise he'd been as successful as he was. Testament to him he's got some good experience and I'm going to learn from that hopefully as a manager and hopefully Martin will get some fulfilment from the opportunity as he's been out of football for over a year now.
"I felt that the side he was building at Shepshed when they dismissed him and Simon was coming together but obviously football is about results and he feels he was dismissed a little bit too early but that's gone now he's with us and we're pleased and if Anthony was going to leave from my point of view I don't think we could have replaced him with anybody better and we are delighted we've got him and I'm looking forward to working with him. He wasn't here today because he was at a wedding but he'll be in the dugout on Tuesday.
"John Shales will play at Sutton on Tuesday. He's only done one session with us but he's signed. I knew, from trying to work with him in the past, about his cricket commitments but we are fully behind him on that and we fully support him. John didn't look out of shape at all when he trained with us on Tuesday night and he'll be with us on Tuesday but we are behind his cricket commitments until the cricket season finishes.
"We are not sure when Jamie Barrett will be available. He's being treated for the symptoms of swine flu, him and his partner, which is a shame. He called me on Thursday and couldn't make training as he was feeling a bit under the weather. He went to see the doctor and it isn't officially confirmed but they are treating him as having swine flu so he's in isolation at the moment. Tuesday will be a bit too soon as it's the fifth day of isolation.
"Chris Mawbey is working today and there were another couple of lads not available for varying reasons two or three who will be available on Tuesday and we'll have the opportunity to have a look at them.
"It remains to be seen when Callum Keenan, who also has swine flu, will be available. I spoke to him on Tuesday and he seemed in fairly good spirits considering the circumstances. I think his fifth day of isolation will be Monday but it just depends how much it's taken out of him and what a doctor recommends in terms of him resuming training. So, he's going to be a little bit behind everyone else having not done any pre-season as yet and we have good competition in that area.
"Callum is another one we desperately want to sign if at all possible. There are other clubs who are interested in Callum and Jordi Gough who is also ill and needs an MRI scan on his back because of an ongoing problem from the end of last year.
"I've been working on Steph (Marshall) for quite a while, since the end of last season and initially he wanted to think about it. He'd played parks football with his friend and his brother, who was on the bench today, last year and there was another guy from the same side who looked sharp in training but was unavailable today.
"We knew what Steph could do at this level of football and he showed it today. In training on Thursday he was on fire and it's only his second session so we were delighted that we'd persuaded him to play again. He's really up for the challenge and he's got the bit between his teeth, There are a few things we've got to support him on regarding availability for training and games due to his work and family life but we'll work around them and as long as he keeps himself fit and he's training as regularly as he can he'll do well for us and we are delighted and he showed today - he could have had a hat trick.
"Steph found the UniBond level from a personal and family point of view a struggle. This year there will be less travelling; the furthest North is Gedling and South is Leicester. He's a lovely guy, he's really laid back and although he probably enjoyed his football last year, we've thrown him a challenge this year at the moment he's willing to accept that and if he carries on from how he played today we'll struggle to hang on to him to be honest!
"It is a challenge as a manager or coaching team to keep players interested and make sure they're motivated and if they're not it's time for them to move on because we only want players at Gresley that share the same vision as us in creating a solid foundation for us to build on in the future."
