East Midlands Counties League
Riverside Ground, Stoke Lane, Nottingham
Saturday, 30th April 2011, 3.00pm
Blenkinsopp Double Keeps Gresley On Track
Gresley manager Gary Norton made one change from the starting eleven that faced Graham Street Prims a week ago. Mickey Lyons, who was still suffering the effects of a dead leg he collected last Saturday, was put on the bench and Brian Woodall dropped back to fill his position which meant David Blenkinsopp joined Royce Turville up top.
The Ferrymen were a far different side to the one that Gresley faced early in the season with just James Jepson remaining from that squad and the addition of Tian Walton from Carlton Town who signed in January.
Playing with a very stiff wind at their backs and a well grassed surface albeit very bobbly, Gresley started off well and were soon putting Town under pressure with a cross from Tom Betteridge just flew past the far post.
Bleinkinsopp was soon testing the home keeper Gareth Ellis with a stinging shot that he did well to deal with.
Despite all the early possession from Gresley, Town took a shock lead on 13 minutes when a ball came back for visiting keeper Gary Hateley to clear but he was closed down very quickly by Kye Hall and the ball slammed into the striker's body and bounced straight back and into the empty net.
However, Gresley responded in the best way possible by levelling straight from the re-start. A ball down the right saw Turville make good headway despite the attention of a defender and his cross found Blenkinsopp who headed the ball home.
Jordi Gough then went close with a wind assisted free kick that cleared the bar by inches. Carl Slater then warmed the hands of Ellis with a strongly hit low volley that the keeper did well to hold onto with Turville racing in for any rebound.
On the half hour Gresley were almost made to pay for some sloppy defending. Town took a very quick free kick and with the visitors still arranging themselves Tian Walton raced through but with only Hateley to beat he spooned his effort well over the bar.
Blenkinsopp tried his luck with a well hit curling shot that Ellis clawed out of the top far corner as Gresley finished the half strongly.
On 53 minutes Gresley had a glorious chance of taking the lead when Woodall on the right slid a pass back to Turville who in turn laid the ball on for Slater but disappointingly his shot went well over. A minute later Turville hit a good shot on the turn that Ellis managed to get a finger to sending it away for a corner.
Just as Gresley were getting on top alarm bells rang when Don Jones was allowed far too much time and space to pick his spot but his low shot was dealt with superbly by Hateley diving to his right and pushing the ball away.
That wakeup call seemed to give the visitors a bit of a jolt and they once more pressed forward putting the Town defence under constant pressure and that pressure drew dividends on 70 minutes. A long throw in from the right picked out Turville in the box and the striker turned his marker before hammering the ball into the net at the near post.
To Town's credit they didn't give up and forced three corners in succession but couldn't convert any of them. The nearest they came to getting back on terms came when a long range wind assisted effort from Demar Hines had Hateley scuttling back to his goal line and having to tip the ball over the bar.
The last ten minutes was all Gresley who were looking to add to their total and they were unlucky not to have been given a spot kick when Hines brought Blenkinsopp down just inside the area, but the referee Mr Green made another disappointing decision, one of quite a few to be honest, awarding a free kick a yard outside the area.
Thankfully that poor decision had no bearing on the final score because in time added on, Woodall smashed a low shot that Ellis couldn't hold on to and Blenkinsopp reacted quickly to hammer the ball home just inside the upright.
Manager's View
"It was hard work. Before the game we learnt that they'd brought a couple of players in from Hucknall and Carlton so obviously it's strengthened them and that was evident today. If Gedling are going to play that side every week they are not going to be where they are now in the league.
"We've not helped ourselves by giving a sloppy goal away but we recovered fairly well with a nicely worked goal from David Blenkinsopp and it was one-one at half time.
"We had it all to do in the second half against a very stiff breeze and if I remember rightly when we last come here we had a stiff breeze. There was a lot of grass on the pitch but it was very bobbly but we managed to grind it out and roll our sleeves up in the second half. Playing against a side that has been galvanised by a couple of players dropping down a couple of leagues and a refereeing performance that was the worst I've seen all season. I won't say it's the worst referee I've seen because I've seen him before and he's had some very good games.
"Particularly in the first twenty minutes he and his assistants were on another planet and even their bench agreed that they were awful for both sides and there were some strange decisions all afternoon but thankfully it's not cost us today.
"Dave Blenkinsopp is buzzing at the moment and we've been saying for a few weeks now that he's got himself back in shape and back in form. Mickey Lyons indicated on Thursday that he'd be struggling to start the game because he's still struggling with a dead leg he picked up last Saturday. We said we'd leave it until we got here today and it was always in our minds that should Mickey be proved unfit to start that we'd go four-four-two with Blenks in there and he's popped up with a couple of important goals for us. Obviously the one near the end, the game was nearly over but the equaliser was the key. He's worked hard and so has Royce Turville and they've both been on the sheet today and we're pleased about that.
"We've now got the 'semi-final' on Wednesday up at Holbrook. It's not going to be easy up there. They are on a good run of form and they very rarely lose at home. There are some good friends of ours in the management team. Lee Grant works with Martin Rowe and one of my best friends Simon Van-de-Broucke who did well for us last season for whatever reasons moved to Holbrook and we are still in contact and they are up for that game.
"There'll be a big crowd up there and they've reached the cup final and they have a couple of ex-Gresley players one of whom Emeka Ejiofor is knocking in the goals at the moment and he scored a couple in the semi-final the other night. Holbrook did the double over us last season so we know it's a difficult team and a very difficult place to go.
"They are not the side we beat earlier in the season four-nil which came before the managerial changes came about. Since Lee and Vanders have gone in there they've really galvanised the team and have gone on a really good run and very rarely lose a game and especially at home so it's going to be a tense one for us but we'll give it our best and we'll throw the kitchen sink at it and see if we can get the win that we need."
