Pre-Season Friendly
The Dovecote, Butthole Lane, Shepshed
Tuesday, 3rd August 2010, 7.45pm
Gresley Unlucky Again
Gresley can once more consider themselves unlucky not to have come away with something for all their efforts.
Playing against their Evo-Stik neighbours Shepshed at their Dovecote ground Gresley were for most of the first half at least the better side and should have been three goals up after fifteen minutes but for some heroic keeping by former Moatman Gavin Saxby.
However, against the run of play Dynamo scored two goals at the end of the half to win this competitive friendly.
The visitors went agonisingly close with just 2 minutes on the clock when new boy Shaun Wilkin fired across Saxby and the face of the goal but Adam Betteridge racing in at the far post just couldn't connect with the ball with the goal gaping.
Saxby came to his sides recue on 11 minutes making two fine blocks in succession as shots were fired in from close range as Gresley threatened.
On 15 minutes Gresley almost took the lead in somewhat fortunate circumstances when Rhys Powell's corner from the left hit Lee Sutton in the back and the ball flew just wide with Saxby beaten.
Dynamo slowly began to get back into the game but it was still Saxby who was much the busier of the two keepers making a save from Richard Butler's free kick and from Jordi Gough's header at the near post minutes later.
Against the run of play the home side took the lead. A short corner was played back to Ricky Laws who, with Gresley's defence at sixes and sevens, was allowed to loop a shot over keeper Gary Hateley and into the far corner.
Sutton went close with a header and Powell fired a free kick straight at Saxby as Gresley still couldn't get the ball in the net.
Another lapse in defence by the visitors allowed Dynamo to double their advantage with five minutes of the half remaining when Laws was allowed to collect the ball near the bye line and then coolly slot his effort past Hateley.
The second half, as usual in pre-season games, was interrupted by the constant changes of personnel but again it was Gresley who had the better of the chances with Saxby once more the busier of the two keepers.
The first chance came just after the hour mark when Gough easily made his way through the home defence and one-on-one with the keeper but Saxby made a fine block with his legs and from the resultant corner Tom Land was unlucky to see his header fly wide of the post.
Five minutes later Gough once more dribbled his way through a flimsy defence but yet again the youngster was denied by the outstretched leg of Saxby.
The second half drifted away with the only a chances apiece. Gresley's coming from Royce Turville but the man-of-the-match Saxby once more denied his former club from getting on the score sheet tipping the looping header over the bar and a superb strike from Shepshed bringing out a rare second half save from Hateley to deny them a third goal.
Manager's View
"It was a disappointing result. Any time you lose is disappointing. We came here tonight to play a good Evo-Stik side and they look a good outfit - they've got some very good players in there.
"We've given two really, really poor goals away and that's been the theme through pre-season and I'll be honest it's a concern.
"Despite having a very good share of the play in the first half and forcing one or two opportunities we've given two really sloppy goals away that we should be avoiding at this stage with the personnel that we've got.
"We made a fist of it in the second half and made some chances and half chances and Gavin Saxby ahs had to make a few saves and we've been a bit wasteful.
"They've had some good possession on the break and hit us well and moved the ball about well but I'm struggling, apart from maybe one save right at the end trying, to remember Gary Hateley having too many saves to make in the ninety minutes.
"But, that's football. You have to take your chances to win games and we are guilty of not doing that and we do lack a little bit of a cutting edge at the moment maybe. It's not helped when you have one of your top players who hasn't done much pre-season because of injury and you're missing one of your creative players because they are stuck abroad.
"It was a positive workout for us in many respects. We've got Royce Turville come through twenty minutes tonight and hopefully no reaction to that but I do feel we are a little bit short of where I want us to be going into the season. I can't do much about that know but we'll have a good session on Thursday and kick it off on Saturday.
"We'll have one or two of the players missing tonight back on Saturday. Mickey Lyons is a key one for us. He was due to fly back from Ibiza today but his flight has been delayed- him and Chris Bate have been stuck over there so it's frustrating especially not having a player of Mickey's creative mould, he's very important to us.
"There'll be one or two others. Rob Spencer couldn't change his shift tonight so he'll be available. Richard Hanslow celebrates his birthday today and he's got a family function on tonight so he wasn't in and there are one or two others who have little bumps and knocks so we didn't risk them.
"We'll train on Thursday - we've got a very good squad of players and we've got to sit down and decide on the sixteen that will be on duty and go from there.
"It's a very difficult one with Royce. If he's fit you want him in your side, simple, but what we don't want to do is to push him too early. A player I've missed, Olly Hancock, has been a breath of fresh air in pre-season and we've been building him up gradually not giving him too much pitch time and yet on Friday night he limped off with a tight hamstring and a groin problem.
"What we don't want to do with Royce who is in a similar position as Olly regarding missing pre-season due to injury and holiday is to not rush them back although it would be tempting to start Royce on Saturday after twenty minutes tonight but we've got to be sensible.
"We'll sit down with Royce and the physio on Thursday night and have a chat about things but I'm minded to err on the side of caution bearing in mind that we haven't got a midweek game but we'll have to see because we are struggling a little bit in the attacking department.
"Lee Sutton works hard but you could see from his attempts on goal tonight that he's lacking a little bit of confidence perhaps. But, one thing he does give you is his work rate and having Royce up there with him would be a massive benefit but we'll see."
