East Midlands Counties League
The Moat Ground, Church Gresley
Tuesday, 18th January 2011, 7.45pm
Royce Double Gives Gresley The Points
A goal in each half from striker Royce Turville gave Gresley all three points but they had to work for them.
In this quickly re-arranged fixture from last week, St Andrews proved a much sterner opposition belying their lowly league position although they had their in-form goalkeeper Warren Butlin to thank for keeping the score close because If it hadn't been for his heroics Gresley easily could have scored five or six goals in this, at times, frustrating game.
Gresley were almost handed an early start when a very poor back pass allowed David Blenkinsopp to steal the ball before firing a shot across the goal that came back off the base of the post. Unfortunately, Gareth Langford's following up the rebound put his shot over the bar.
However, the home side took the lead three minutes later. Turville raced onto a through ball and despite his shirt being grabbed by a defender he managed to keep his balance before slotting the ball past the oncoming Butlin.
Blenkinsopp was then agonisingly close to making it two for Gresley when he almost got a touch to Richard Butler's cross. He went even closer on 27 minutes when a superb cross from the right by Tom Betteridge was met by Blenkinsopp but his header from four yards out was somehow pushed away by a terrific reflex save from Butlin.
The referee Mr Smith again missed Turville being pulled back as once more he ran forward but Butlin denied Gresley a goal this time acrobatically tipping the effort over the bar.
St Andrews' first attempt on goal came on 32 minutes when Will Robinson was allowed too much space at the far post but his shot hit the side netting.
Back came Gresley with Barry Woolley heading Jordi Gough's corner from the left back into the area and almost on a plate for Turville but a vital touch from a defender took the ball off his toes.
It was Gough's turn to test the visiting keeper when Langford made a good run across the area before laying on the ball for the youngster who hit a tremendous shot that Butlin did well to block with his legs.
With St Andrew's solitary attempt on target they levelled the match in time added on in the first half. With at least three St Andrews' players in an offside position the referee amazingly allowed play to continue down the right flank and one of the players who had been offside was allowed to cross the ball which Chris Jerrison headed home with Gresley players protesting but to no avail.
St Andrews came out looking determined with both Clint Gunn and Tangi Nghishidimbwa firing wide in the first ten minutes of the second half.
Gresley almost grabbed the goal they were looking for when substitute Brian Woodall's cross almost reached Turville but on seventy minutes they did take the lead again with the help of some poor defending from the visitors.
Gough flew down the left and cut into the area where an outstretched leg from Gunn brought the winger crashing down. Mr Smith had no alternative but to award the penalty and to show a yellow card to Gunn.
Turville chose to take the spot kick and he made no mistake smashing the ball past Butlin sending the keeper the wrong way.
On 72 minutes St Andrews almost levelled again when Jerrison curled a good attempt past the far post.
Five minutes later it looked a dead cert that the visitors would claim a share of the points when substitute Josh Richards raced forward into the area with only Gresley keeper Gary Hateley to beat but a superbly timed tackle from Gough thankfully snubbed out the danger before the final strike.
In the final few minutes of the game St Andrews man-of-the-match keeper Butlin again showed fine form by first saving well from Tom Betteridge who stung his palms with a vicious shot that Butlin did well to hold on to and then producing another fine block as Woodall's pile driver from the edge of the area threatened to add to Gresley's tally for the evening.
Manager's View
"You can't please everyone but I'd rather have three points having ground them out in that way. Most of our performances except the last one we've taken sides apart scoring three or four goals every game. That was as hard a game as we've had all season very similar to Saturday's game with no inch asked or given.
"They are a good side and to think that seven days ago they'd only got five or six players available but I know what it's like being a manager. Sometimes you have lads not available due to college, work or other commitments and it's very difficult but on the strength of that side out there today it's difficult to see why they're in the bottom third of the league. I'm just delighted to get three points.
"We haven't played well today. We didn't get the ball down and knocked it about and we are low on confidence from the battering both on and off the pitch we've had in the past couple of weeks and that was there for all to see.
"Let's be honest, their keeper has made four or five top drawer save that on another day one or two of those going in would have made things a bit more comfortable. But, from my point of view we are working the keeper and we've created some good chances but have not taken them but on another day we would have taken them and the score line would have been four or five one.
"Credit to the lads. They graft was there, they battled and to honest there are still a few lads coming back to match fitness since the break and you could see that some of their lads were tiring as well but there was a concern for me when we had a ten or fifteen spell in the second half when again we were a little bit ragged and a little bit all over the shop.
"We've got a lot of work to do whenever we can get on the training pitch to resolve that and that's been one of the frustrating things for the last seven weeks. Since we've started playing again we haven't really managed to get on the training pitch and during the cold snap we only had three training sessions in seven weeks and so you can't work with the lads or discipline them in terms of shape and what you want them to do without the ball. Hopefully, the bad weather has passed and we can get on the training pitch a bit more.
"If I'm honest I wish I'd have made the call on Liam Hebberd before the game but it's easy with hindsight. He had a tight back on Saturday and we brought him off because of it. He's always going to struggle with his back because of his physique. At half past four Brian Woodall wasn't coming because he was on afternoons but he rang at ten to five saying he'd managed to get half a shift off at work. We had the option of Darren Keeling or Rob Spencer on the bench at that time and Rob's carrying a bit of a hamstring picked up on Friday night at the gym so that so when Brian made himself available I thought I'd stick with the line-up I'd picked and we'll have Brian on the bench and I'm glad we did.
"With Liam going off after half an hour or thirty five minutes it meant that Brian had an early introduction. We were desperate to get the new signing Kyle Bryant on and Richard Butler was complaining late in the first half of stiffness and soreness in his calf, a slight pull maybe? But we saw how he was in the first five or ten minutes of the second half and he wasn't right so we dropped Jordi Gough back and gave Kyle his debut on the left wing and he did very, very well for us and I'm very pleased with that.
"It was a big substitution near the end. We knew Gareth Langford was going to struggle to complete the ninety and we had Danny Holmes on the bench who by his own admission isn't one hundred percent fit who would have gone on and done a job for us or it was Mickey Lyons who we put on the pitch.
"We weren't playing any decent football and we wanted to get Mickey to pull a few strings and he put the pass through for Jordi who got brought down and got his penalty so in some ways it justified the decision to take David Blankinsopp off and put Mickey on so i thought all three substitutes played a major part.
"Kyle gives us a bit of an injection. Some of the lads are low on confidence and when they get the ball we are giving it away cheaply or we haven't got the energy and it's going past people. Brian in particular for some reason is low on confidence. He's a fantastic player but he keeps running into trouble and giving the ball away cheaply but what pleased me about Kyle was that he ran at people and got past people and even when he'd lost the ball he was still in there battling to get it back. He works hard defensively for us as well and baring in mind that he only met some of his team mates tonight and we've had very little time to work with him and to give him his jobs when in possession or not in possession but I know that the work Anthony Hemmings has done with him at Stapenhill will have disciplined well because he's a good coach.
"Kyle's a little bit short on fitness you could see that but he never gave up and he looks to be a useful acquisition so fingers crossed he can continue that. Unfortunately he's cup-tied for Saturday as he played for Long Eaton in a previous round."
