Match Report  |  Gresley FC vs Heanor Town

This was a keenly contested game between arguably two of the better football sides in the East Midland Counties League.

However, there were no points on offer but the incentive of being in the draw for the third round of the Carlsberg FA Vase.

Two second half goals from David Blenkinsopp and his replacement Royce Turville saw that it would be Gresley's name in the hat on Monday.

Heanor could have taken a very early lead but Gary Webster's outstretched foot just failed to connect with Lee Askham's inviting low cross from the left.

Gresley also went close when Blenkinsopp's shot on the turn from Tom Betteridge's pass hit the side netting and a minute later Rob Spencer put his header wide.

Blenkinsopp worked hard to chase a lost cause and won the ball at the bye line and crossed into the box but frustratingly Spencer couldn't get the ball from between his feet and the chance was gone.

Carl Slater then tried his hand with one of his trademark long distance efforts which made Mark Frost make the first meaningful saves of the game acrobatically tipping the dipping shot over the bar.

Amazingly all this action occurred in the first ten minutes of the match and it then went into a period of stalemate with neither side being able to make the telling pass as they snuffed each other out.

However, the game did liven up slightly just after the half hour mark when a very good flowing move from Heanor saw Askham threading a perfect ball through for Graham Wells who was unlucky to see his shot hit the outside of an upright.

Within a few minutes of the second half starting it was Gresley's turn to be denied by the woodwork. Brian Woodall made a fine run down the left and after cutting into the area saw his shot beat Frost but come back of the post.

Blenkinsopp then saw his header from Woodall's cross fly over the bar and a couple of minutes later Woodall had a decent shot well held by Frost.

The vital breakthrough came on 64 minutes and it was the home side who got it. Tom Betteridge floated a high ball into the area where Blenkinsopp beat Frost's attempted punch to head the ball home into an empty net.

Town almost levelled when Richard Butler failed to clear the ball and with Gresley goalkeeper Gary Hateley caught in two minds Nathan Benger took his chance but once more the upright came to Gresley's rescue with the ball ricocheting back into the grateful Hateley's arms.

Liam Hebberd, who replaced Adam Betteridge at the break, was having more and more of an impact on the game causing the Heanor defence problems. He made Frost pull out another decent save tipping his dipping shot over the bar.

With fifteen minutes remaining Blenkinsopp burst into the area and seemed to have been brought down from behind but referee Mr Langton dismissed the protests.

With the game still on a knife edge and with only a few minutes remaining of normal time, Woodall fired a shot well over the bar as he cut through the Heanor defence.

Turville then replaced Blenkinsopp and it proved to be a telling substitution as the striker, recently recovered from a broken finger, scored the second goal for the home side.

Hebberd left a Town defender sitting on the grass with his deft footwork and supplied a low cross from the right that Turville was waiting for at the far post and he duly slotted the ball home from close in.