FA Cup Extra Preliminary Round
The Moat Ground, Church Gresley
Saturday, 15th August 2009, 3.00pm
Late Fightback Denies Gresley
Gresley were just 10 minutes from going into the next round of the FA Cup through a Brian Woodall brace but two goals from Andy Hill and former Moatman Pat Rowell halted their progress.
The home side were short of several players first team players and they looked a little nervy especially in the early period.
However, their nerves should have been somewhat calmed when Brian Woodall in space down the left controlled the ball well and beat keeper Tom Gutteridge after just 6 minutes.
Minutes later they almost doubled their tally when Jamie Barrett narrowly headed Woodall's flick on over the bar.
Heather were not overawed and were the width of a post from levelling on 12 minutes. A cross picked out Matt Moore whose header looked goal bound but Gresley keeper Simon Baldwin dived full length to push the ball against the post and away.
On 23 minutes Gutteridge made a superb save to deny Gresley skipper Carl Slater tipping the midfielders fierce volley onto the bar and collecting the loose ball.
Ten minutes later a pass found Matt Hill whose delicate chip cleared Gutteridge and skimmed over the bar.
Heather hit back almost immediately when another former Moatman Matt Weightman threaded a ball through catching the home defence flat but a hurried final shot well wide from Luke Clamp spoiled the move.
The visitors should have equalised five minutes into the second half when Moore's low cross from the left could not be capitalised on by Weightman who ballooned a shot over the bar.
They were to rue that miss as Woodall scored his second goal after James Davies had made a fine run down the right before picking his team mate out at the far post who tapped the ball home.
Gresley seemed to be taking control of the game and a superb move involving Slater and Woodall through the middle was only denied, what would have been a fine goal, when Gutteridge blocked Slater's shot.
Heather hit back and it was only an impeccably timed last ditch tackle by Davies that prevented Moore from scoring.
On 80 minutes Davies' expert tackling once denied More an opportunity but Heather levelled seconds later.
Moore down the left found Andy Hill in acres of open space over on the right with a cross which the Heather player then stroked by Baldwin and into the far corner of the net.
Five minutes later further poor home defending allowed a cross from the right to find Rowell who duly found the back of the net to set up a replay on Tuesday night.
Manager's View
"It was a disappointing result in the end. We got ourselves in a position where we should have gone on and closed the game out and credit to Heather they kept going right to the end and pulled it back to square the tie.
"It's frustrating because we've gotten into a comfortable position again without really finding top gear.
"A goal early in the second half we were fairly comfortably controlling the game, Simon's not had too much to do and we just showed a bit of naivety defensively. We got caught from our corner on the break for the first goal - he took it well, and you could see a few nerves creeping into things then because they were coming at us.
"I think we then tried to play offside for the second. The ball's ended up going out wide and we had a centre half closing down the cross and we were at sixes and sevens in the box and they've managed to get a cross in and they finished the cross.
"We had a big chance to go three nil up and their keeper's saved it and that was probably the pivotal moment of the tie. If we'd have gone three nil up it was game over but it stayed two nil and at two nil you always have a chance and incredible fighting spirit Heather showed, and full respect to them for that and we've got to try again now.
"It was a different squad to what we saw on Tuesday. We have a squad of nineteen first team players and we have eight unavailable at the moment.
"Having said that we had two of them on the bench today and it was going to be an absolute last resort if I was going to bring Royce (Turville) on or even Tom Betteridge because I've been warned by the physio that there is a fairly good chance that if I'd have used them today for any length of time their injuries could go again so obviously we had them there just in case.
"On top of the two I've just mentioned we have the two cricketing lads (Jon Shales and Paul Edwards), we have Rob Spencer and Jordi Gough injured and all will be back in a couple of weeks. So basically we had a bare eleven and we've had to dig deep into the reserve team today. The reserve team manager to go on the bench; we had their coach on the bench and one of their lads to go on the bench as well Matt Draycott who we put on in the end.
"We named Micky Lonergan because he's registered with us and he was hoping to get back from work in time to make the bench and give us an option but obviously he didn't make it and so it's frustrating because we went through pre-season relatively injury free and we are in the second week of the season and to have a squad of nineteen down to eleven I've not seen that in my time but hopefully we'll have one or two more in contention for Tuesday.
"A few days rest and Royce might have a better chance; Tom Betteridge might have a better chance and possibly Stefan Marshall who I've not mentioned who's a threat for us up front might have a better chance so we'll have to see what Tuesday brings."
