East Midlands Counties League
The Watkinson Contruction Bowl, Spondon
Saturday, 1st May 2010, 3.00pm
It's Runners-Up Spot For Gresley
Posters up in the village billed this as 'the big game'! It may have been for Borrowash Victoria but it was the visitors who took top billing.
Second half goals from Tom Land and David Blenkinsopp ensured Gresley took runners-up spot in their first season in the East Midlands Counties League as news filtered through that Dunkirk had also won handing them the championship.
The first half was a cagy affair with very few attempts on goal with Vics having perhaps the best on 7 minutes when Robert Mulonga took advantage of a stumble by Land to break free into the area but with only Gresley keeper Gary Hateley to beat fired embarrassingly so wide that it almost went for a throw in.
That was the wakeup call Gresley needed and they started to press forward with Jamie Barrett's diving header, from Brian Woodall's corner, going wide.
Gresley had a shout for a penalty when a shot from Mickey Lyons seemed to hit the hand of a defender but the referee Mr Nutting waved the appeal away.
The second half was much better and the visitors were soon on the attack with Tom Betteridge making a run down the left and picking out Royce Turville who hit his shot wide.
On 55 minutes Gresley took the lead. A corner from the right was only flapped at by home keeper Laurence Kennerson and the ball looped over for Land to cheerfully head into the gaping goal.
The game then returned to a similar pattern to the first half with both sides finding the difficult playing surface a handicap to any flowing football.
On 75 minutes Vics had another golden chance to level when a long cross ball set former Moatman Sean Gummer scurrying down the right but again when very well placed he hurried his attempt on goal firing high and wide.
The action turned to the other end and Blenkinsopp, celebrating his 23rd birthday, had three bites of the cherry bringing three very good blocks out of Kennerson to deny the striker a goal.
However, five minutes later the best move of the game proved successful. A ball out of defence set Woodall racing down the left and he found Blenkinsopp with a great pass and this time he gave Kennerson no chance as he slotted his fourteenth goal in eleven appearances into the net.
Blenkinsopp was the width of a post from adding to his incredible tally when Turville held the ball up before laying it back; the shot beat the keeper but clipped the outside of the far upright.
Gresley had a couple of further chances right at the end of the game with Blenkinsopp heading straight at Kennerson and substitute Rob Spencer hitting a shot from distance just wide.
Manager's View
"We always knew it was going to be a tough game. Anytime you face a Borrowash side involving Mark Wilson you know you're going to come against a well organised a well drilled side. They were pumped up and ready to put a shift in and we found that today.
"We've played them three times this season and in all we've had the edge in terms of the results but all of them have been tight affairs and you have to hand credit to them.
"We managed to get the breakthrough in the second half but i was pleased in how we defended. We were for the most part patient and resolute and worked hard ourselves and obviously Tom Land has given us the breakthrough and it opened the game up a little bit.
"I was a little disappointed that we didn't make use of the possession we had but having said that the pitch was a little bit lively a typical end of season pitch.
"We just couldn't get the tempo going that we wanted involving players like Mickey Lyons and Brian Woodall in slick passing moves getting David Blenkinsopp and Royce Turville involved a little more.
"It was one of those away games that you have to dig in and we're pleased with the clean sheet and the three points.
"Gareth Langford has been superb wherever he's played. He's played in a number of positions and he's very rarely had a bad game and today was another example of that. As a back three I thought Tom Land had a sticky start but then got back into the game, Jamie Barrett was his usual calm, assured self. Gareth is a work horse and he's similar to Royce because a lot of his work goes un-noticed but no matter where you play him he's such a versatile guy, centre of the park, right wing, right back, centre back he does a job for you and we were pleased with that today.
"There were some other hard working performances today which was a pleasing thing. We were pleased with Gareth and pleased with all of the guys. The results we've had in the last few weeks it's frustration - I think that's our best run of results in the league this season, ten wins and a draw in eleven - it betters our previous best nine wins and a draw in ten games so it's frustrating that we've finished the season strong.
"I believe that Dunkirk have won two-one today and if that result is confirmed then congratulations to Dunkirk. They've had a cracking season. They've got a good set of lads and a good manager and they deserve to win the league if they finish with the points they have. It's just frustrating that we had that little blip just after the Vase that resulted in us slipping behind in the title race.
"The Vase was a wonderful experience to be potentially one hundred and eighty minutes away from playing at Wembley and it's been good for the club's profile and finances as well but the bread and butter is the long season. If you include pre-season it's just over ten months.
"We've still got three points to play for and they are a big three points for us because we want to surpass the points total that we set at the start of the season which was 85 and if we win next Saturday we'll get 86. I think last season's winners points per game ratio from thirty four games was 2.11 points and if we win next week we'll get 2.25 which was the target we set at the start of the season. In fact we'll slightly better that.
"Looking back at some of the points that we dropped, which I'm sure most teams will do, we're just frustrated that the run of form we've just hit when we've got everybody back after the league cup semi-final it was just frustrating that we couldn't get some of them back a bit earlier but that's football. Every manager is going to bemoan about decisions that have not gone their way, missed opportunities and errors at the back that cost goals. All managers do that at the end of the season.
"But, I've got nothing but pride for the lads. They've worked very, very hard and the staff and players can take a little bit of credit but we've just fell short of our target which was to win the league.
"Happy birthday today to David Blenkinsopp. I thought it was going to be one of those days for him because he was very well marshalled defensively. I thought it was going to be one of those days and he wasn't going to get on the score sheet but he kept going, got his goal and I think there were also a couple of fantastic saves from the young lad in goal Kennerson, and David could have added to the tally but he'll be pleased with that on his birthday and that's fourteen in eleven appearances so I was delighted with Dave.
"Royce has seemingly gone unnoticed because he's not got on the sheet today but the work rate the lad puts in, I'd love to know how many miles he's put in this year. He's grafting for us much of it as a lone striker in games earlier in the season.
"I'm pleased with everyone and congratulations to Dunkirk - worthy champions."
