East Midlands Counties League
Riverside Park, Barrow on Soar
Tuesday, 21st September 2010, 7.45pm
Gresley Slip Up At Barrow
What is it about Tuesday evening midweek away games that prevent Gresley from hitting the levels we all know they can reach?
Surely that will be the question on the minds of manager Gary Norton and his assistant Martin Rowe as yet another midweek game saw a disappointing Gresley performance and another league defeat.
Barrow should have been well over the horizon before half time but a combination of very poor finishing and some superb saves from Gary Hateley saw them lead by a solitary goal at the break which they doubled almost on the hour mark.
Although Jamie Barrett and an own goal gave the visitors a glimmer of hope they were caught flatfooted at the back as a swift move ensured cup final type celebrations at the final whistle from the home side.
Gresley fielded arguably one of their strongest line-ups so far this season with a bench that included Brian Woodall, Liam Hebberd, Royce Turville with Adam and Tom Betteridge and gave the large travelling supporters a real hope of gaining three vital league points.
However, those hopes were dashed with only seven minutes played. Although David Blenkinsopp had an early shot saved and Richard Hanslow seeing his shot from the rebound deflected away for a corner it was the home side who deservedly opened the scoring.
Having most of the early play Town's Chris Wilson, in absolutely acres of empty space, saw his shot superbly tipped over by Hateley but the Gresley keeper couldn't do anything about the goal that looked certain to arrive.
From the resultant corner Liam Fitzpatrick swung over the corner from the left which Mickey Lyons flicked on with his head at the near post unfortunately over Hateley and on the far post Jason Munn had the easy task of nodding the ball into the net.
An out-of-sorts Gresley were finding it difficult to find each other and moves where constantly breaking down in the final third either by some tough home tackling or by the heading away by a solid defence of any high ball launched towards it.
On 14 minutes Town should have extended their lead when Michael Paporozzi caught the Gresley back line napping and raced though with only Hateley to beat but his finish was atrocious firing well wide of the goal.
Hateley was called into action on 33 minutes clawing the ball out of the top corner from Craig Nobles superbly struck free kick. And the Gresley custodian did well to clear another well taken free kick just before the break this time with a fine clearing punch.
With just three minutes gone of the second half, Gresley were extremely lucky not to have gone even further behind in the match when once more a static defence saw Robert Pitman race through and while the visitors where trying to get an offside decision, which he clearly wasn't, thankfully the finish was once more sadly lacking as Pitman fired well wide.
Gresley did rally with Rob Spencer having an effort blocked and Mickey Lyons a shot on the turn saved by the keeper.
However, Town who looked the more dangerous with every attack did double their advantage on 67 minutes. Gresley failed to clear the ball sufficiently and Liam Fitzpatrick took advantage sending a peach of lob over Hateley and into the far corner of the net.
The Gresley faithful must have had visions of the Greenwood game replaying in front of them but to their side's credit they did strike back.
On 69 minutes Gareth Langford was put through but as he rounded the keeper Adam Wilcox a last ditch well time tackle saw the ball go for a corner and from the flag kick the ball was half cleared but Jamie Barrett was on hand to hammer the ball back into the net.
Gresley were now having their best spell of the evening and the previously solid home defence was starting to show a few cracks and it was from this pressure the visitors scored the leveller.
David Blenkinsopp made a fine run down the left and his cross into the box caused pandemonium with substitute Turville having a shot blocked but the deflected ball was unfortunately bundled home by Town's defender John Coppard.
It seemed that Gresley were going to get what looked an unlikely share of the points but again some poor defending undid all their previous good work. A very swift break down the right was not dealt with and Noble was allowed to send in a low cross that was easily despatched from close in by substitute Dan Merryweather.
Gresley had one more chance of salvaging something from the game. A high ball into the area saw an audacious overhead kick by Blenkinsopp clatter the bar but in all honesty it would have been an undeserved share of the points as the visitors had been for large periods outplayed and outfought by an impressive Barrow side that on this sort of form will cause many more upsets before the season has finished.
Manager's View
Martin Rowe
"We are very, very disappointed. Me and Gary are absolutely gutted. The way we've been playing and we've come here tonight to a real decent pitch which should have been made for us but unfortunately the Gresley team forgot to turn up!
"We've been outfought, outplayed by not a brilliant team but they've done the basics right and they really wanted it and we weren't up for it tonight.
"Me and Gary got the team ready for tonight but some of them just didn't have that desire or grit to go out and work hard for Gresley.
"We are conceding too many goals. Perhaps we like to play attractive football and perhaps we've got to start looking in house a bit more and shut up shop and be a bit more defensive but I think we've got the attitude that if they score one we'll go out and score two. That's not going to be it, we've got to start getting clean sheets as soon as possible.
"I think there were a lot of players out there tonight looking for excuses but at the end of the day the buck stops with them. We put eleven players out there and if they aren't prepared to work hard for the team and the supporters - I feel sorry for them tonight having to watch that - we'll have to get new players in who are prepared to roll their sleeves up and get stuck in and work hard!
"We'd got ourselves back in the game and we lapsed again and let the guy in and it was so disappointing but, we roll on. We'll be training on Thursday and we'll pick them up again. Me and Gary will sit down and have a discussion on where we go from here.
"When we got them in at half time and brought Liam Hebberd on we'd get back into the game. When Liam first started in the second half things looked promising, we were creating stuff and then all of a sudden we stopped. I don't know why? I wish I knew and I wish I was still playing!
"We are far too quiet as a footballing team, we don't talk enough - we need a bit more passion and desire in our team.
"Richard Butler is the sort of player who likes to get stuck in and he's only got to be a minute late and he'll concede a foul and he's off so that's why we brought him off as he's already been booked in the first half.
"We need to take a long hard look at ourselves. We know where we should be and Gary's just said we've got the same points as we got last year but we've got to roll our sleeves up and start battling a lot harder than we are at the moment.
"We need Barry Woolley - we might need three other defenders as well! I think Mr Woolley will make a big difference to us but basically you defend as a team. You can't always blame the back four and the keeper every time. You've got to look how the team plays as well.
"When you looked at our bench tonight, and looked at the talent, yes, we've got to sit down and seriously decide which way we go now.
"We went three at the back tonight because we wanted more in midfield. We dropped Mickey Lyons into the middle hoping that would get us playing and I think we did play better in the second half but we lacked that bit of grit tonight.
"We go to Graham Street Prims on Saturday and we go from a lovely pitch like this to one that will be just the opposite but we've got to go out there and get a result."
