East Midlands Counties League
Canal Street, Leicester
Tuesday, 9th March 2010, 7.45pm
Smash & Grab Saints Take The Points
This was another very frustrating midweek game for the good travelling faithful who had made their way down the motorway to the Canal Street ground of St Andrews football club.
Despite having the majority of possession and chances Gresley were undone by two smash and grab raids that leaves the Moatmen's title hopes hanging in the balance.
Lowly St Andrews started brightly and went the closest to opening the score when Sam Gillespie found himself running through in on goal but his shot was weak and didn't really test Gresley keeper Gary Hateley.
The visitors were finding it hard to get into their stride and it wasn't until the twentieth minute that they created a chance. Tom Betteridge made a good run down the left and picked out Royce Turville who could only spoon his shot over the bar.
Brian Woodall then hit a shot that flew wide before Turville had a shot saved by St Andrew's keeper Chay Carter.
The home side hit back with Dan Henfrey firing narrowly wide before Turville at the other end also firing wide.
The closest Gresley got to opening the scoring came on 43 minutes. A corner from the left by Matt Hill found Gareth Langford whose header was cleared off the line with the keeper beaten.
Minutes later a looping shot from Carl Slater was clawed away from the top corner by Carter as Gresley pressed forward.
A rash of bookings meant that the start of the second half was a very stop, start affair but just after the hour mark, Langford had another chance to score but his shot lacked any power and was easily dealt with by the keeper.
Somewhat against the run of play St Andrews took the lead when Clinton Gunn got a lucky break down the right and the tall striker made his way down the right and played a perfect ball to Henfrey who had the easiest of tasks to slot the ball past the exposed Hateley.
Gresley fought back with a series of corners but couldn't capitalise on them. On 81 minutes Woodall produced a good cross that Turville got on the end of but Carter made a good save to deny the front man his deserved goal.
Two minutes later Woodall found himself in front of goal with just the keeper to beat but another shot lacking any power made the save easy for Carter.
The game was buried for Gresley with four minutes of the game remaining. An uncharacteristic slip by Langford allowed substitute Danny Raddie to stride forward and slot the ball past Hateley and into the far corner of the net prompting scenes of unbridled delight from the home bench and players alike.
Manager's View
"We didn't take our chances and we were sloppy in the manner we gave the goals away which is frustrating.
"I've just said to the lads if you are going to do something or achieve anything this season you've got to be able to win ugly and tonight was one of those games.
"It was a firm pitch, a bit bobbly and it didn't quite suit us in the first half. I thought we played better attacking wise in the second half but we didn't take our chances.
"We created four or five very good chances and they've scored from probably their only two chances from open play. If you don't take your chances and concentrate at the back you're not going to win football matches.
"We didn't move the ball with the rhythm and tempo and quality that we're used to. There were one or two players maybe three or four who were just not at their optimum level which is what you need every week, week in week out.
"There aren't many sides in this league that you can afford to have three or four lads having an off day or an average day.
"St Andrews set about their task very well and they worked very hard and I've got no complaints about that. They defended very, very well. It was in a complete contrast to the Holbrook game were we didn't deserve anything. I felt on chances, balance of play and possession I was hoping we'd get the breakthrough but has it happened they hit us on the break and we got beaten far too easily and we found ourselves one-nil down.
"Credit to the lads they kept going but the quality wasn't there to open them up. We've not really worked their keeper with the good opportunities we've had and then we got caught on the break again. Gareth Langford, normally very dependable has not dealt with it and got mugged and it's two-nil.
"I don't think we need to commit men going forward. We play a 4-3-3 and allow our midfielders to get forward. It's an attacking formation, three men up front and creating chances wasn't the problem tonight.
"When you have players within that system who are not playing as they could, to their capabilities the system struggles. In the first half it looked like Royce Turville was very isolated. We tried to deal with that at half time and we got them in amongst one or two because we wanted to get support to Royce a little bit more.
"When we've got the ball we want it to be a front five and get forward very well. The licence is there to get the bodies forward but the players have got to carry out their instructions and in the first half Royce was too isolated and I think we sorted that out to an extent in the second half and obviously in the end we did go 4-4-2.
"The system has worked well for us over the weeks and we've scored a lot of goals with it and won a lot of games with it. If we hadn't have created any chances with it tonight then I might have had a look at things but we created four very good gilt edged chances in the middle of goal with just the keeper to beat and we've not worked him well on any of them so I've got no arguments because if you do not take your chances you will not win games.
"On the evidence of tonight there may be one or two people who will get an opportunity but in fairness we've got to pick the bones out of it. We've not played awfully tonight. It was one were we needed to scrap it out and grind it out and take some chances and come away with a hard earned three points but it hasn't happened.
"We are not going to press the panic button and make wholesale changes. We still believe in this team, we are a good team. These are good lads and I believe in them and I'm very proud of them but we've got to, particularly away from home and we got six Saturday's now where we are away from home, roll our sleeves up a little bit more and be a little bit harder to break down.
"There may be one or two changes on Saturday but we'll have to see."
