East Midlands Counties League
The Moat Ground, Church Gresley
Tuesday, 7th September 2010, 7.45pm
Lions Tamed By Gresley
After going a goal down through a 30 minute penalty scored by James Whitehead Gresley hit back to score four themselves with goals from Mickey Lyons a brace from Richard Hanslow with Royce Turville completing the scoring late in the game.
Heanor Town, who should be in the mix come next April, were expected to provide a stern test for the home side and Gresley weren't disappointed.
The Lions started brightly forcing two early corners but it was Gresley who went close to opening the scoring when on 6 minutes Gareth Langford laid the ball back for Matt Hill whose shot flew narrowly the wrong side of the post.
For the visitors, skipper Gary Webster made a good run down the left but his final shot hit the side netting and Tom Norris hit a volley well wide.
On 19 minutes Hanslow managed to get himself into a good position but his shot was well blocked by Town keeper Mark Frost with his legs and the ball came out to Lyons who delicately chipped the ball back over the keeper and was unlucky to see his effort land on top of the goal net. Three minutes later Hanslow was denied again by Frost.
A quick break saw Town make a run through the middle and the pass was cut out by the hand of Jack Coulson who was fortunate to only receive a yellow card.
From the resulting free kick Jimmy Gee-Pemberton hit a suberb effort from 20 yards that was destined for the top corner of the goal but Gary Hateley made a top class save pushing the ball away for a corner.
The corner was slung in from the left by Gee-Pemberton and Ashley Grayson was apparently tripped just inside the area and although the decision looked a little harsh referee Mr K Frampton pointed to the spot and Whitehead made no mistake sending Hateley the wrong way.
Town's lead only lasted three minutes when Lyons made a run down the left, cut inside and blasted a shot past Frost.
The action swung to the other end with Norris ending his run down the right by flashing a shot across the face of Hateley's goal.
Gresley took the lead with six minutes remaining of the first half. A superb long pass from Liam Hebberd was collected by Hanslow who controlled the ball before smashing his shot past the diving Frost and into the far bottom corner of the net.
A good move early in the second half featuring Lyons, Hebberd and Hill saw Hill send a low shot across the box that eluded Rob Spencer sliding in at the far post by a matter of a few inches.
On 57 minutes Gresley increased their lead when Jordi Gough made a good break down the left and provided a low cross into the box where Hanslow was waiting to slip the ball into the open goal.
Hateley was on top form again just minutes later tipping substitute Dan William's vicious shot on the turn over the bar.
The inconsistency of the referee's decision was antagonising the home supporters. Some tasty tackles from the visitors seemed to go unpunished but one in particular resulted in substitute Gresley's Richard Butler, who had only been on the pitch a few minutes, being shown a straight red card for apparently retaliating to an awful tackle from Grayson behind the referee's back. The irony was that the referee yellow carded Grayson and awarded the free kick to Gresley.
The referee was centre of attention again when a quick break from Gresley was denied by a Town player sticking out a hand to deflect the ball and amazingly although Gresley got the free kick the player concerned was not even spoken to unlike Coulson who earlier was booked for a similar foul.
On 82 minutes Gresley were again awarded a free kick and Town were made to pay when Lyon's free kick picked out substitute Turville who made no mistake burying the ball in the back of the net for arguably the loudest cheer of the night for the popular striker.
Hateley was called upon to make his third top draw save of the game this time denying Grayson by acrobatically tipping the effort over the bar.
With two minutes remaining Lyons almost added a fifth for the home side but Frost did well to push the effort away for a corner.
Manager's View
"We had to show some character tonight with a referee like that! If he's going to give penalties away like that, well you may as well stop playing. All Liam Hebberd did was get tight to the lad and he obviously felt it and he went down like a sack of spuds.
"Even their manager said, and I know we're a long way away, it was never a penalty but in fairness to our lads they did show a lot of character because prior to that I thought we were playing some fantastic stuff.
"The grass was a bit shorter today and the mower problems we had has been fixed and the grass was a decent length and there was a bit of zip on the grass from the earlier rain and we knocked the ball around beautifully for the first fifteen, twenty minutes or so and to find ourselves a goal down, and it happens in football when you get decisions go the other way, we are all human and we all make mistakes, it was frustrating rather than anything because we'd started the game so well.
"To start the game so well and find yourself one down against a side like Heanor who have had such a good start it was going to be difficult but fortunately, we got the goal fairly early afterwards and it settled us down a little bit and we went on to complete a good first half and went in ahead at the break.
"I was dead pleased with Richard Hanslow who took his goals well tonight. We are trying him in that role, the Royce role as we call it, and he did very, very well and he was ably helped by Mickey Lyons and showed some fantastic stuff and I'm really pleased with how he's doing. It's been difficult because he's not been in the side and we've been trying to get him fit and you can see visibly that he's getting fitter with every game.
"We tried him in a two on Saturday and that was promising and I thought we'd give a go in that role tonight and he did very, very well. He's still got to work harder; we want him to react quicker to things and I think he can get a little more joy if he does.
"It's not something that's normal to his game; he's a lazy sort of player. He scored a lot of goals last year but talking to his former manager who recommended him to us he said he's not got the work ethic built in to him but it's pleasing to see he's listening and he's coming along and playing some good stuff.
"I thought for his first goal his first touch had taken him away wide and the chance had gone but he got his head down, had a good connection and found the net. The second goal was easy and we thought he was going to miss it to be honest he's had a tap in after some very good play in the build up so I'm delighted with him at the moment.
"Gary Hateley made two or three very good saves but that's what he's there to do. The one in the first half from a free kick I thought he played up to the crowd a little bit but he did well. Then there was the one when the game was a tight and he did very well and then there was the one that showed his agility and tipped one over the bar so we are very pleased with Gaz at the moment.
"It's frustrating because I thought he deserved a clean sheet tonight because to concede a penalty and obviously not a goal from open play was frustrating.
"We haven't had too many clean sheets in the league so I thought if we could have got one tonight it would have been just deserts because everyone had worked hard. Our defensive shape was good and I was pleased with all of the back five which includes Gaz and yes he's doing well for us and long may it continue.
"Richard Butler was silly. I could see that something had gone off and I thought personally that he'd had a little stamp. It was a nasty tackle and warranted a yellow card. Richard is an experienced player probably our most experienced player and he has got that little bit of an edge to him and unfortunately we've seen it for the first time since he's been at the club with his first straight red card whilst he's been on the pitch.
"He got one last season when he was warming up before he came onto the pitch. I'll talk to Richard about it and I'm sure he's full of apologies to the lads but fortunately it hasn't cost us tonight but he should know better that that."
