Pre-Season Friendly
The Moat Ground, Church Gresley
Saturday, 24th July 2010, 3.00pm
Town Snatch A Winner At The Moat
Gresley supporters will surely have left the Moat Ground wondering how the best side on the day managed to lose the game.
For the second friendly in a row the homeside had most of the play and created the better moves only to be undone by a scuffed goal and a penalty.
Coalville Town forced the early pace with corners but it was Gresley who carved out the first chance on 26 minutes.
Carl Slater sent a great pass through to Brian Woodall but the resultant shot was well held by the Ravens' keeper Sean Bowles.
A minute later Nathan Jones caught out the Gresley backline and raced in on goal but Gary Hateley made a fantastic save diving low to his right to push the shot away for a corner.
Just after the half hour mark Coalville took the lead. A ball into the area was only half blocked by the Gresley defenders and a deflection put the ball at the feet of Anthony Carney who somehow managed to scuff the ball into the far corner of the net.
A pin-point cross from Oliver Hancock saw Woodall crack a volley from the edge of the area that fizzed by the upright.
Gresley came out for the second period looking eager to get back on terms and seven minutes into the half they got the goal their play had deserved. Woodall superbly picked out Adam Betteridge down the left who in turn fired over a cross to Mickey Lyons waiting at the far post to head the ball home.
It looked as if the homeside who take advantage as they clearly got on top of their Midland Alliance neighbours and went within a whisker of taking the lead. Woodall controlled a pass and flicked the ball past the bewildered defender before cutting in and hitting a shot that Bowles did well to get a hand to tipping the dipping ball over the bar.
On 60 minutes Gresley went close again when Lee Sutton near the bye-line hooked the ball over his shoulder and narrowly past the far post.
As the game looked to be ending all square Town managed to win the game with just two minutes remaining.
Carney burst in the left of the area only for the unfortunate Tom Land to trip the player giving the referee no alternative but to point to the spot and Carney himself took the kick sending Hateley the wrong way to give the visitors an undeserved win.
Manager's View
"Things are taking shape and it's hard to make too many judgements in pre-season and I've been consistent over the seasons saying that.
"If you play really well people get carried away and if you play too poorly people think you're a million miles away!
"It's all about getting that base fitness from the work the lads have done in training and then starting to look at little systems we may be looking to employ when the competitive games come.
"Like Tuesday night I thought the game was played at a good tempo between two good sides with a good spirit and in fairness we probably haven't seen the strongest Coalville side today, they've got a number of lads out which always happens in pre-season but it's been a good workout for both sides.
"I was a bit disappointed in giving a soft penalty away at the end. Our defender got himself the wrong way round and tried to turn one-eighty as the guy went past him and he's been a bit clumsy and brought the chap down with three minutes to go.
"I was more pleased with the second half performance than the first and we swapped systems at half time and it seemed to make us a little more stable. We managed to create a few things and scored a lovely goal and had one or two half chances after that. It was a fairly decent performance and the lads have got some good pitch time as well.
"There were some fine individual displays and that's encouraging with two weeks to go. At the moment we've only got a couple of knocks. Royce Turville hasn't been involved again erring on the side of caution with him and hopefully he will take some part in Tuesday's game.
"Rhys Powell has got a bit of fluid on his knee so we didn't risk him today, Jack Coulson comes back off holiday today and Gareth Langford is back off his training course on Monday. We will have to assess Gareth as he pulled a muscle on a training run to see if he's fit enough to be involved yet so come Tuesday we should have some more options available although Matt Hill will be away on holiday for a couple of weeks now but the squad is coming along nicely.
"We've been having a look at Billy Nugent, someone I've been aware of for a couple of seasons. He's a relative of the Betteridges. He's come down to a couple of training sessions and unfortunately he picked a bit of a knock up which prevented him from being involved before today and he's gone on and showed his fiery side and gone on to show some nice touches. It's too hard to judge in just half an hour so we'll certainly be taking a look at him again on Tuesday and potentially on Friday night if he's available.
"I was very encouraged by Oliver Hancock and would have loved to have kept him on but he's had no pre-season whatsoever other than a couple of training sessions recently so he has no base fitness. I spoke to both him and Richard Hanslow before the game saying we'd be looking for between forty five minutes and an hour and I'd make a call and I decide that they'd both put a good shift in. I was very encouraged by some of the play especially from Olly, the way he got at people and he got crosses in - two or three fantastic crosses into the box. He looked lively and he wanted to get at people and commit defenders and he looks a good prospect.
"If we can give Olly another hour on Tuesday and build him up gradually hopefully we'll keep him fit as well.
"On Friday we'll be missing Carl Slater as he's best man at his mates wedding. We'll also be missing seven or eight of the lads as they are all going away but it will be a good opportunity for lads who are not normally involved. People like Olly Hancock, Billy Nugent and Richard Hanslow if they are available we get some much needed pitch time as we are building up the fitness.
"The result will be irrelevant as we've so many players out and we won't make any judgements on them but it's important to get pitch time for players who need it so it will be a good opportunity."
