East Midlands Counties League
Terrace Road, Ellistown
Saturday, 12th March 2011, 3.00pm
Three Points For Gresley
Gresley manager Gary Norton gave new signing Lee Barrow his debut as the experienced defender partnered Barry Woolley at the heart of the defence with Jamie Barrett filling the right back slot.
Another change came just before the kick off when Royce Turville picked up a slight groin strain during the warm-up to be replaced by David Blenkinsopp.
It was another game where Gresley were made to work hard against a stubborn Ellistown side but second half goals from Barrett and substitute Rob Spencer ensured the visitors left with all three points.
The visitors almost made a perfect start when Gareth Langford rattled the woodwork with just a couple of minutes on the clock.
On 12 minutes Gresley twice went close to opening the scoring. Barrett slung over a free kick from the left which Woolley headed back into the box and Brian Woodall headed towards goal only to see his effort blocked on the line by the keeper Kahil Mann-Kler at his near post. From the flag kick taken by Woodall Woolley was unlucky to see his hit the bar.
Ellistown were finding it a struggle to get out of their own half as they played into a strong wind with very few excursions deep into Gresley's half. Indeed, it was the visitors who were making the chances and another came when Blenkinsopp beat the offside trap but Mann-Kler did well to block the final shot.
Mickey Lyons then tested the keeper with a shot on the turn that was well held and then minutes before half time another good chance was created. Blenkinsopp did well to rob a defender of the ball on the bye-line and slotted the ball back to Woodall who in turn passed to Langford who fired a low shot just wide of the far post.
Ellistown looked a far brighter outfit having the better of the early second half play but Gresley opened the scoring on 63 minutes. A free kick from the left by Woodall found Barrett in the box and his powerful header beat the keeper.
For some reason Gresley seemed to go back into their shells after that goal and Ellistown were a little unlucky not to strike back. On 71 minutes a good free kick from Robbie Johnson brought out a fine save from Gresley keeper Gary Hateley who had been largely untroubled up until that point. Minutes later they went close again when Jack Lewis made a good run and finished it with a vicious shot that clipped the outside of Hateley's far post.
The homeside were on top now and went close again when Johnson hit a speculative shot from long distance that beat Hateley, who was off his line, but bounced on the top of the bar and over.
The killer blow came in time added on when Hateley's long punt down field looked to have been covered by Mann-Kler sliding out on the left of his area but with substitute Spencer in close attendance the keeper fumbled the ball and Spencer nipped in and curled the ball into the far corner of the net from an acute angle.
Manager's View
"We were relieved when Rob Spencer scored the goal right at the end. Any time in a games that's one-nil you're always nervous especially in the second half. The longer the game progressed Ellistown were getting more into it and we were a little uncharacteristically nervous on the ball giving it away a little bit.
"But, you've got to credit Ellistown for the effort they put in. In the second half I thought they were the better side but we've showed some battling qualities and we had a little bit of luck as well. They had one from distance that could have gone in but we battled hard and we hit the woodwork two or three times in the first half and Brian Woodall should have scored with the chance he had but over the ninety minutes we probably shaded the three points.
"We were pleased when Rob put that one in because we'd had one or two scares. He scored in injury time when he chased a lost cause down. There are one or two lads who need to take a lesson from that. Rob didn't have to chase that ball down because their keeper looked favourite but Rob got there and it broke for him and he finished it well so fair play to him.
"We've just been teasing Rob in the dressing room because we don't think he found a red shirt. He gave the ball away and looked a little nervous. The reason he's out of the side at the moment is confidence. He's a great player so I don't know why he lacks confidence but hopefully that goal will settle him down a little bit because he's got goals in him. His work rate is phenomenal and I don't think there is anyone in the squad with the exception of Royce Truville, who work as hard as Rob Spencer. We are really pleased with him, he's been patient because obviously he's found himself on the bench of late and hopefully the goal will do him the world of good and give him the confidence he needs to have an effect on the run-in.
"We decided to go with the shape we did last week with Royce up top and Mickey Lyons underneath and we did very, very well and Royce is very good at playing in that position. In fairness to David Blenkinsopp he usually plays in a two but with Royce suffering a slight groin problem in the warm-up we wanted to give David a chance in that system to see how it went and to stake a claim for a more regular place. Obviously he's disappointed that he's found himself on the bench and to clear something up which was reported in the Burton Mail, the comment about not having a gun held to his head to stay at Gresley was not aimed at David but to all the players collectively. Players are not happy about being on the bench at the moment but we want them to stay around and fight for the shirt with the reason that they believe in the club and want to win something this season hopefully the league. I spoke to David today and explained which was important because how I read it I would have been offended if I'd have been the player.
"David seems to want to stay and fight for his shirt whether we pick him or not and that's the key thing. He's frustrated at being on the bench but we feel it's a team game and when Royce was fit we think that's a better shape for us. Royce pulled his groin in the warm up and David has gone in there and put in a decent shift in for us. He's not had that bit of luck and maybe the chances but he's worked fairly hard for us and we'll reflect on that during the week but we won't be making any decisions about next week yet because we've got seven days to go and we may have one or two knocks in the dressing room to consider and hopefully we'll have Danny Holmes back who frustratingly got a knock playing for the reserves which we played him in to get his fitness back.
"Matt Hill is close to a return. He was on the bench today for the first time after being out for several months. We had considered starting him at full back given the fact that we got Lee Barrow to sign for us yesterday but we know that Jamie Barrett is versatile and we felt that having not played at this level for several months we'd have Matt on the bench just in case and Jamie has gone out and done a good job at full back and popped up with the all important first goal for us.
"I thought both Lee and Barry Woolley did well for us. You could see the quality, they won most of the headers and positionally they looked fairly solid but we are not going to get carried away with that - can they do it consistently over the next few weeks? Lee talks and organises and hopefully he's going to be a useful addition for us.
"Regarding Brian Woodall, the ball is in Dagenham's court. I spoke to them last night because Brian's had two or three deadlines where he's been promised some news and now he's been promised he'll hear something directly from the manager on Monday. So we're just waiting to see. We've had a chat to Brian today because we don't want the attention to distract him. He's a Gresley player at the moment and he's a big player for us and regardless of what decision is made at Dagenham, certainly from the conversations I've had with the club, it will be with the view of him going in the summer so I want Brian to focus on the remaining games we have left and keep plugging away and hopefully catch the clubs above us."
