Friendly
The Moat Ground, Church Gresley
Tuesday, 20th October 2009, 7.45pm
Friendly Win For Gresley
This was a well contested friendly with both sides playing the game in the right spirit.
The game was arranged after Ilkeston Town, Gresley's original opponents for the evening had to cry off due to injury concerns and Grantham's Tuesday night's opponents Chasetown involved in a FA Trophy replay.
Both sides used the game to give pitch time to several players.
Grantham made the first attempt on goal with a shot that was well saved by former Gingerbread keeper Gary Hateley.
Gresley responded and a header seemed to elude the visiting keeper Ayden Duffy and needed to be cleared off the line by a defender.
On 15 minutes an inviting cross from Gio Carchedi was headed wide by Lee Potts and minutes later Carchedi again provided a cross for Ian Robinson but the shot was saved by Hateley.
With 2 minutes of the first half remaining Carl Slater fired a scorching 30 yard effort that was put away for a corner.
Gresley came out for the second half looking determined and they were rewarded on 52 minutes. Royce Turville fired a stinging shot that Duffy could only parry into the path of Brian Woodall who slammed the rebound into the bottom corner of the net.
Grantham hit back and Gresley had Hateley again to thank for denying the visitors making a superb save from Darren Brooks' well driven 25 yard free kick.
On 64 minutes Gresley doubled the score when Woodall made a run down the right and sent a low cross for Turville to hammer into the net from just inside the area.
Four minutes later it was almost three when Adam Betteridge hit a shot that Duffy did well to get a hand to forcing tha ball onto the cross bar. The Grantham goal then led a charmed life as Mickey Lyons had three attempts to force the ball home blocked.
Substitute Alex Goddard drilled in a low shot past Hateley and into the far corner to make the final thirteen minutes interesting.
But it was the home side who looked the more likely to score with Woodall shooting just wide and Lyons firing a long range shot fractionally over the bar.
Gresley added their third goal of the evening with a minute remaining when Duffy appeared to fumble a shot from Lyons and Turville reacted quickly beating the keeper to the loose ball and ramming it home from close in.
Manager's View
"I still think Brian Woodall is a work in progress. He started the season brilliantly and got to ten goals in no time and in the last three of four matches we are getting more consistent and solid performances and we are pleased with that.
"In the pre-match warm up you'll see Martin (Rowe) take individual players to one side which is good to see using his experience and he explains things giving them and not just Brian, pictures of what we want to see. Trying to explain in certain positions where we want them to be and to explain to them if we do make mistakes.
"It's good because Brian is one who has benefitted from that and amongst many others - it was a good work out for us tonight.
"My intention was to give Simon Baldwin the Borrowash game and Gary Hateley Saturday and then involve them both tonight but Simon couldn't change is shift at work.
"Gary has had two solid games and we'll reflect on that between now and Saturday and make our decision accordingly and whatever decision we make it will be what we believe is in the best interest for the team at this current time.
"Most sides in this league are very organised and well drilled and very physical and another of the better sides we'll face is Gedling. We don't know too much about them. We've done our homework on them as I'm sure they've done theirs on us.
"From my point of view I'm just looking for that bit of consistency and although yes, this game tonight was a friendly, it's seven unbeaten now and I said to the lads before the game that if we could get that winning mentality - and we have tried to bring in one or two players who we think will help to give us that experience and compliment what we've already got at the club.
"Richard Butler, who played tonight, has not played at all this season. He's come in and marshalled us and has played in an unfamiliar position but you saw what his experience brings.
"Gary Hateley is another who brings a lot to the table in terms of his talking and organising. When we go away from home we need to have a tougher spine. Saturday we'd almost done the job and to get so close but to let it slip - yes it's a league cup game - but we still had the motive to win it but we let it slip. The last two or three minutes on Saturday or maybe the last ten, fifteen minutes you could see them scoring and we needed players like Mark Blount who has done well and Richard Butler who will bring experience to the side.
"There were eight or nine players missing tonight. It's a crazy game football to play that well and we had two reserve team players out there in the end and we tried to get two youth team players on there as well.
"We will have a few players to consider for Saturday. Gareth Langford, Stefan Marshall may be ready bit we might err on the side of caution with Stef. Jamie Barrett is missing, Mark Blount will be available, Chris Gray will be available all being well and there are several more - seven or eight were missing tonight for various reasons
"Me and Martin were talking only this week that we've not been in a position where we've got everyone fit this season so far. That's why we've tried to add to the squad and there is a player who we've identified that we are thinking about putting seven days in who we think would bring something that we believe we have missing in the squad at the moment so it's not over yet.
"The competition for places when everyone is fit is going to be fierce and we'll lose one or two which we have already done. But we want a little bit of luck and stop picking up silly injuries. Jordi Gough tonight was phenomenal for example and we really hope that he's over his injury problems.
"Royce Turville has put a cracking shift in. Royce is probably the best player we have at the club in terms of going forward. He makes the ball stick. It's a long season and we hope we can keep all the players happy.
"We are always going to create chances to score goals but the concern is at the other end. Unfortunately, Rich's (Butler) only error of the game meant that we didn't get that clean sheet. It wouldn't have meant much to a lot of people but to us it would have meant the world and to Gary Hateley it would have meant even more tonight against his former club.
"Rob Spencer was fit enough to be involved but we said to him if he felt in any way his hamstring then to come off straight away but it was a great opportunity for Dean Waite to come on. I don't think he was even in the reserve team squad for the Derbyshire Divisional Cup tonight so we drafted him in and he came on after just eight minutes and had a taste of the first team which he was delighted about.
"My plan was for the last fifteen or twenty minutes regardless of the scoreline and obviously I didn't expect us to do as well as we did was to put the youth and reserve team lads on but because we were winning the game two-one I felt we'd played fairly well defensively so I didn't want to upset it.
"I'd have hoped to have got the young lads on the pitch a bit longer and we were about to put the other young lad on for the first team experience but the referee didn't add any time on. But it was a good experience for them and both thanked me for getting them involved and they got called up at half five today and just being around the first team dressing room seeing what goes on and they've both enjoyed the experience ."
