East Midlands Counties League
Selhurst Street, Hyson Green, Nottingham
Saturday, 9th October 2010, 3.00pm
Gresley Back To Winning Ways
A much improved performance saw Gresley win comfortably at Radford with goals from Rob Spencer, Liam Hebberd, Carl Slater and an own goal but the clean-sheet is still being elusive.
Manager Gary Norton brought back David Blenkinsopp after the striker recovered from a foot injury picked up at Graham Street Prims and defender Matt Hill who had missed the last game due to work commitments.
Gresley started brightly with Gareth Langford firing over the bar and then having a shot cleared off the line by Ross Lawrence who somehow managed to put the ball over the bar!
A long through ball set Blenkinsopp charging in on goal but he skewed his shot just wide of the far post.
On 15 minutes Gresley opened the scoring when Langford threaded a ball down the left for Spencer who took the ball into the area and beat keeper Neil Wilkinson firing the ball into the bottom far corner.
One of Radford's rare attempts on goal saw Freddy Stannard fire well over the bar and minutes later they were to rue that miss as Gresley doubled their score. A ball into the area was not cleared and Hebberd persisted in his attempt to get to the ball and managed to scuff a shot in at the far post.
Jamie Barrett was the width of the post from scoring number three when his free kick from just inside his own area beat the keeper but stuck the far upright.
The visitors were in command and Spencer went close when he headed Adam Betteridge's just wide. He then turned provider minutes later when he laid the ball back for Slater to hammer over the bar.
However, that miss was just a range-finder as seconds later Spencer provided the exact same pass but this time Slater made no mistake rifling a low shot past Wilkinson for goal number three.
With six minutes of the second half gone Spencer made a good run into the area but was unceremoniously brought down for a penalty. Brian Woodall took the kick but Wilkinson made a fine save to deny the frontman a goal.
Blenkinsopp was then dragged down to the floor in what looked like a decent shout for another penalty but instead of appealing he scrambled to his feet and managed to get his shot off and was unlucky to see his effort come back off the woodwork.
On 57 minutes Gresley extended their lead in somewhat unfortunate circumstances for Radford defender Daniel Bonnick. Another dangerous Spencer cross was met by the big centre half who then proceeded to power his header into his own net. Substitute Richard Hanslow went close when he latched onto a mistake by Bonnick but the young striker put his shot wide.
Gresley could have added another couple of goals late on when Spencer beat a defender but his low shot was well held by Wilkinson who then needed two attempts to deny Hanslow the first he fumbled but he managed to grab the ball on the goal line at his second attempt.
With two minutes remaining Radford scored with their only attempt on goal. A defensive mix-up between Hateley and Jamie Barrett allowed Stannard to slip in and poke the ball home.
In time added on Gresley were denied by some superb goalkeeping from Wilkinson. Substitute Chris Bate headed Woodall's free kick down into the ground and as the ball bounced up Wilkinson did superbly well to tip the effort over the bar and then he made a fine block as Hanslow raced into the area before firing a stinging shot goalwards.
Manager's View
"It was a shame we let in the late goal because up to that point I'd got Jamie Barrett up there with Rob Spencer and maybe Adam Betteridge and Carl Slater - because he worked hard today - as man-of-the-match.
"Jamie is disappointed because he should have dealt with it a little better in the first instance and he knows that. He tried to bring it down with his right and clear it with his left maybe the other way round and that ball goes clear with distance. When he had opportunity to retrieve the situation he's not been quite as commanding as he should have been. He should have put it towards Newark rather than dallying on it and their guy has got in and scored.
"Jamie's disappointed and we've briefly mentioned it in the dressing room and there is no-one more disappointed than Jamie and in fairness to him he'll know what to do next time.
"But, it doesn't take the shine off what was a fairly solid performance from us. We won the game in the first half and controlled it most of the second.
"I don't think we played as well in the second half. We certainly didn't get in behind them as many times as we did in the first half but having said that, their goalkeeper has made some very good saves including the penalty.
"Brian Woodall has missed two penalties on two consecutive Saturday's now. Both penalties were struck very, very well and he's been unlucky. The keeper made two or three other good saves. The one from Rob Spencer springs to mind and two off Richard Hanslow when he came on so it could have been a little bit more but we're just pleased with the win and the three points.
"Regarding the penalty miss there are thoughts. Brian's missed two on the trot and David Blenkinsopp missed one against Radcliffe a few games ago. We've missed three penalties now so we'll have a look at that in training. Brian's striking them well and he's finding the corners to be honest. If they were penalties lacking confidence maybe we would look to change them but that is something we will talk about as a group including the players themselves and see what their thoughts are and maybe have a look in a training session.
"But, as long as Brian is striking them like that and he's confident to go and have them. We do have other penalty takers in the side, David Blenkinsopp and Rob Spencer. We'll have a look at it but it's not a major concern at this stage but if we continue missing them then it will become so.
"I'm viewing the game at Shepshed on Wednesday as a training exercise. We've got a lot of people's views on the internet. We've had a friendly at this stage of the season more often than not and it's never been an issue in the past. We've got things to work on. It's alright people saying they should be sorted by now but they're not. We started the season with high hopes but we've got a problem defensively and we want to look at one or two things. We've got a new goalkeeper coming in who will play and we want to give him an opportunity. Hopefully we'll have Danny Holmes available because we want to get him involved into the team. We've got a couple of players coming back from holiday and suspension, they'll be involved and it's much better than training because training can sometime become boring and repetitive week after week after week.
"At the end of the day we've got a ninety minute match and training is two hours. You can easily pick up injuries in training. Royce Turville picked an injury up in training on Thursday and was only fit enough to make the bench today.
"It's just something different and I can see why some supporters are questioning why we need friendlies at this stage of the season but it's not new and from my point of view it's just an alternative to training. We'd have been training anyway. Yes it is a competitive situation but equally you can pick injuries up in training as I've just mentioned so that's all it is, to introduce new players and to give pitch time to players coming back from injury or those who haven't had much so far. The result is totally irrelevant for us - I don't care if we win or lose.
"We're hoping Royce's injury isn't too serious. We spoke last night as to whether he would be rested completely today. He's not felt it at all today which has been good but he would have been used only in an emergency and with that in mind he may not be involved on Wednesday to give him a clear week.
"Gary Hateley has a bit of a leg injury picked up in the FA Cup replay so now we've got Darren Keeling and once we've moved him over from Heanor we'll have a look at him and get him involved on Wednesday. There are one or two others, Jamie Barrett is carrying a bit of a hamstring in fairness to him and we'll assess whether to use him on Wednesday."
