East Midlands Counties League
Lenton Lane, Nottingham
Saturday, 24th April 2010, 3.00pm
Gresley Keep Up The Pressure
Gresley kept up the pressure on the league leaders when they came through what could have been a tricky fixture with a comfortable win at Lenton Lane.
The visitors almost made the best start possible when Brian Woodall hit a low long-range shot that Greenwood Meadows' keeper Andy Colton did extremely well to dive down to his left and push the ball away for a corner with just a minute on the board.
On 6 minutes Royce Turville met Mickey Lyon's cross from the right but his header went straight at the keeper while at the other end Jordain Blair should have done better but fired his shot well over from the edge of the area.
It was then the turn of Gresley's Tom Land to try his luck. On 15 minutes Woodall whipped in a corner from the right and Land rose at the far post but the header went just wide. Land then had a similar attempt but this time headed Jamie Barrett's free kick wide.
Seconds later Blair had another chance for the home side but after making a fine run down the right managed to hit his shot high and wide of the target.
Gresley were in front on 16 minutes. A long kick from Gary Hateley seemed to caused problems for the two home central defenders and David Blenkinsopp was strong enough to take advantage cut in and hit a vicious shot with his left foot from just inside the area that left Colton helpless.
Adam Betteridge was very unlucky not to have doubled Gresley's advantage and scorehis third goal on the trot on 24 minutes. A flicked header from Woodall found Betteridge over on the left of the area. His shot hit the base of the upright and rolled along the line and agonisingly past the far post.
Gresley were applying pressure on the home defence and this time it was Turville who was unlucky not to have got on the scoresheet when his header was deflected for a corner with Colton beaten.
Turville went close again on 40 minutes when Richard Butler made a good run into the area but instead of trying his luck himself he squared the ball to the unmarked Turville whose shot was well blocked by the legs of Colton.
However, Gresley got the goal their play warranted right on the stroke of half time when a ball was only half cleared as far as Lyons who hit a superb volley over the keeper and into the roof of the net.
With only seven minutes of the second half gone Greenwood were back in the game with what proved to be their only shot on target. Kieran Walker was allowed to make a run through the middle unchallenged and pushed his pass into the path of Chris Atkins who tucked his chance away confidently.
Blenkinsopp went close on 61 minutes but his lob from Butler's pass went just over the bar with Colton scrambling to get back.
A minute later Blenkinsopp was brought down when through on goal but amazingly the referee Mr Humes thought the defender had got the ball even though the tackle was from behind and waved away the appeals.
Two minutes later Woodall made sure of all three points for the visitors when Butler picked him out and the forward obliged by slamming the ball past Colton and in at the far post.
Blair then had yet another chance but put his effort wide but the final chances belonged to the visitors with Woodall shooting wide and Carl Slater hitting his low shot just wide in the closing seconds of the game.
Manager's View
"I was pleased with that performance for two reasons. I thought we played some cracking football in the first half and it was a great time to score just before halftime, fantastic timing, that changed the context of the game a little bit although in fairness we should have added to the one David Blenkinsopp scored a little bit earlier.
"So, to go in at half time two-nil up was good but we knew that Greenwood are a very tough side and that they'd come at us for a spell in the second half and so it proved.
"We had a dilemma whether to go four at the back because they were playing four -three-three but we decided to stick with three at the back and I think that gave us licence in the first half particularly in the wide areas to get the ball and go at them.
"I was a bit frustrated as I thought we were a bit wasteful at times in the wide areas but having said that we did create some good half opportunities.
"It was pleasing for different reasons in the second half. After they pulled one back we did have to dig in and we did change it to four at the back in the end. Then Blenks missed by his standards a sitter as the ball bobbled at the last moment and then Brian Woodall got the third and we'd battled it out. In fairness Gary Hateley didn't have much to do, just a couple of scary moments when they could have pulled one back but we saw it out and won three-one.
"The third goal was one of the best all season. Richard Butler for the last couple of games has been a revelation in midfield and the pass out to Brian to present the opportunity was fantastic and we know Richard can play in there and certainly the two games he has played in there he's given us a little something. He's creative, he doesn't waste the ball very often, he tries to turn defences when he got no time on the ball and for a guy who is not the tallest he gets his fair share of headers so we're pleased with Richard. The build up for that goal he was instrumental in it and in one or two other opportunities we had as well.
"In terms of getting the ball down and playing through Mickey Lyons and using his creativity it wasn't a pitch for that sort of football today but Mickey did a job and he caused problems and he got the important second goal. It was a great finish from Mickey. He does get into some good positions and often he's a little wasteful but having said that he's scored a good number of goals for us now. I'm not sure how many it is but certainly well into double figures and that one was well up there with one of the best of the season for him so we were pleased with that. We took him off at the end to match them up in midfield and keep things tight when they went four-four-two at the end pushing on and Mickey only came off for that reason.
"For Tuesday we'll have Rob Spencer back. We will potentially be without a couple of players. Simon Baldwin will be in goal because Gary is away with work but we know that Simon is more than capable of stepping up to the plate and to be fair to Simon he deserves the opportunity.
"Adam Betteridge is really struggling to get out of University commitments but we've put a bit of pressure on him to see if he can swing it if there is any way possible because he's been fantastic since he got the shirt and it would be unfortunate if he missed a game when he's been playing so well but we understand the lads have other commitments outside football that sometimes they can't get out of so we'll have to wait on that one.
"Should Adam not be available we've got Tom Betteridge who is chomping at the bit now for an opportunity. Jordi Gough who has come back into the squad today after missing last week through an injury who although not his preferred position, would do a cracking job for us if needed in that left wing-back position. We'll see what squad we've got; we're not too bad at the moment for injuries."
