East Midlands Counties League
The Moat Ground, Church Gresley
Saturday, 16th October 2010, 3.00pm
Sports Hit For Four
Goals from Rob Spencer, Adam Betteridge, Gareth Langford and Barry Woolley along with a most welcome clean sheet saw Gresley on their way to all three points.
The home side were soon putting their visitors under pressure with Jordi Gough firing over the bar, Woolley planting his header from a free kick also over the bar and Betteridge copying the other two with his shot all within the first ten minutes.
Sports went close themselves on 14 minutes when Scott Dainty headed Rob Harrison's wide of the far post.
Gresley opened the scoring six minutes later with a good move down the middle. Langford sent Spencer through on goal but he still had a lot to do controlling the ball superbly before slotting the ball past keeper Simon Lillie.
They doubled their advantage on 24 minutes when Liam Hebberd made a good run down the right and after getting the better of his marker sent the most perfect of crosses into the box where Adam Betteridge was on hand to power his header past the helpless Lillie.
Betteridge then turned provider for Langford but the final shot flew wide. However, Langford didn't squander his next chance.
Just on the stroke of half time a clever back heel from Mickey Lyons picked out Langford who fired a terrific shot from 20 yards past Lillie and into the top far corner.
Sports had a good chance to get on the score sheet almost straight from the second half kickoff. A free kick by Dave Moon eventually found its way to James Ozman who in turn sent a good cross into the box but Moon could only send his weak header straight into the arms of Gresley keeper Gary Hateley. Minutes later Lyons was unlucky to see his shot come back off the foot of the post.
Sports again threatened when Moon fired a speculative free kick from the half way line that Hateley needed to tip over the bar and Moon forced Hateley to do the same this time from a shot when Moon looked a couple of yards off side. Hateley was in action once more making a great save to deny Shaun Roulston.
Gresley added their fourth goal on 73 minutes. A corner from the right found Woolley at the near post and the big defender flicked his header backwards and into the far side of the goal.
Holbrook then had their best spell of the game after Hill had become barely a passenger after being injured meaning Gresley were effectively down to ten men. A corner from the right by Moon caused some panic in the Gresley box but the ball was scrambled away before any damage could be done.
The home side hit back catching Sports on the break and Slater played a good ball to substitute David Blenkinsopp whose shot from the left seemed on its way to the goal but took a deflection forcing a corner.
In time added on Sports had a man sent off when Chris King cynically tripped substitute Brian Woodall with referee Mr Rees showing a straight red card and then proceeding to end the game before it was restarted.
Manager's View
"I don't know how we kept a clean sheet! I thought we did very, very well defensively in the first half for the most part although there were one or two hairy moments.
"Second half we were commanding the game three or five up but when the injury to Matt Hill happened we were in effect playing with ten men and Holbrook were unlucky not to have got on the scoresheet.
"We rode our luck a little bit and sometimes you do need a bit of luck to keep a clean sheet and I'm delighted for the lads because it's been a long time coming in the league so I'm thankful we've managed to do it.
"We put David Blenkinsopp and Brian Woodall on the bench today. David says he's one hundred percent fit. We rested him in midweek because of the ankle knock he picked up at Radford and it was just a case of keeping him in cotton wool. Rob Spencer and Mickey did so well on Wednesday night that we thought we'd start with that.
"Obviously Dave does not want to be on the bench and we want that reaction from him. He wants to be out there banging the goals in for us. I had a quick chat with him and it's just a case of wrapping him in cotton wool because although he's declared himself fit we've now got a clear midweek without a game we now we'll have a fully fit David Blenkinsopp to pick from.
"Brian Woodall was another one. It was a very difficult decision to put him on the bench. Adam Betteridge has done very, very well for us in that friendly against Shepshed that it would have been harsh to have left him out.
"Chris Bate and Richard Butler who were also on the bench today started the other night. Richard at centre half and Chris in the centre of the park along with Danny Holmes. I said to the lads before the game that it was probably one of the most difficult squad decisions we've had to make first and foremost because we've left a couple of players out of the squad today who are fit.
"To then pick the starting eleven was very difficult and that's the challenge we have having a squad with such quality and it means that inevitably we are going to lose one or two who are on the fringes of things and can't get into the squad in the next few weeks.
"Dave Blenkinsopp got trampled on in the far corner when protecting the ball late in the game. In effect he was playing up front on his own when Matt Hill picked his injury up although we sent Matt up there. Dave worked very, very hard for us and could have a goal that the keeper saved. He was protecting the ball and I was disappointed in the way the guy has gone over there and visibly trampled all over Dave and he's now got train track stud marks all down his thigh but he's a big strong lad and it's superficial so there should be no problem there.
"The news on Danny Holmes is that he's not available on a Saturday but as we said on Wednesday we'll take it week by week to see when he is available. If he is we are not just going to throw him in necessarily it will depend on how our midfield's performed the game before and if we feel it will give us a boost to have him in there then we'll introduce him.
"Frustratingly Danny was not available for the batch of midweek games we had because that would have been ideal just to have throw him in there to help us out because we had some tired limbs in one or two games midweek we had.
"We've got a good competitive squad and I've said to the lads in that dressing room that we need a squad of more than sixteen because of work commitments, holidays that the lads take and unavailability's, injuries and suspensions can bite deep sometimes.
"It's frustrating and difficult keeping everybody happy because at the moment we've got everyone clear of suspension and before today we had very few injuries although now we've got a few issues that we need to have a look at during the week.
"It's not for the first time that the goals came from four different players and that was pleasing. We've scored a few at home and I thought the first half performance was fantastic and maybe we could have been a couple more up at half time.
"The quality of the goals range from one that Rob Spencer earned himself by his persistence and obviously justified our decision to start Rob up front and get our customary goal for us. That was from persistence, he's gone and challenged things that maybe he shouldn't have won got a couple of ricochets, got though and took his goal well.
"After that two goals of very, very good quality. Liam Hebberd's ball in for Adam Betteridge who took his goal very, very well. It would have been easy to have snatched at it with his head and blaze it over - so he took that very, very well.
"Then another goal of the highest quality involving two or three players. A nice backheel from Mickey Lyons and Gareth Langford has swept in a beautiful goal for the third.
"We'd been talking to Barry Woolley in the last game or so and had a bit of a go at him at half time that with his height he should be causing problems in their defence for us and he managed to get a goal for us so that was nice from a set play."
