East Midlands Counties League
Plains Road, Gedling
Tuesday, 25th January 2011, 7.45pm
Gresley Denied Three Points
The Gresley followers must have left Plains Road with very mixed emotions. Pleased they'd grabbed a point against one of the league's in-form team and saddened that their side didn't put away at least two or three more goals out of the numerous chances they'd made, and conceding a poor goal from a set piece with only a few minutes remaining of the game.
Gresley took the lead through Barry Wolley's header midway through the first half and looked comfortable as they restricted their hosts to just two shots on target. But with six minutes left on the clock a corner by Luke Smith causes problems in the Gresley box and Ashley Winfield managed to poke the ball into the net.
The visitors opened the brighter of the two on a very wet pitch with Gareth Langford firing what seemed a goal bound shot that took a deflection to deny the midfielder.
With only 12 minutes gone Gresley had to make their first change with Liam Hebberd succumbing to an injury to be replaced by Kyle Bryant.
On 23 minutes Gresley got the goal their pressure deserved when a superb free kick from Brian Woodall found Woolley on the edge of the box and out jumping Welfare's keeper Ross Cherry nodded the ball into the net.
It was no more than Gresley deserved and minutes later Woodall and Langford both went close to increasing the lead.
Bryant then made a good run down the right before laying the ball back for Mickey Lyons whose shot flew just wide of the target. Woodall then produced another good shot that fizzed across the face of the goal and just eluding the in rushing Royce Turville at the far post.
Just before the break another change was forced on Gresley when Woolley hobbled off the pitch with a suspected hamstring injury with Richard Butler coming on as his replacement.
The second half started with Gresley still on top and Carl Slater firing a low shot fractionally wide from 25 yards.
On the hour mark another chance went begging when Turville caught the home defence knapping and robbed a defender of the ball and sent a pass over for Lyons who side footed the ball towards the bottom corner bringing out a fine save from Cherry.
It looked only a matter of time before another Gresley goal came but frustratingly the many chances went begging leaving the supporters feeling they'd rue not taking them.
A superb one-two between Woodall and Lyons ended with Woodall volleying wide and Langford heading Lyons corner kick wide.
Lyons again was the provider of yet another chance. He made a good run down the left and picked out Woodall whose low shot was on target but again another fine save from Cherry denied him.
Gedling had hardly caused Gresley keeper Gary Hateley to break out into a sweat but with only their second true attempt on target they levelled. A corner from the right by Smith curled in close to the goalmouth and with Hateley appearing to be bundled over the line by two home players the ball dropped and somehow Winfield managed to get a toe on the ball amongst the chaos and poke it home from very close in.
Although it could be viewed that this was a well earned away point against the league's in-form side everyone connected with Gresley will surely be bitterly disappointed that they weren't travelling home with all three points that their performance deserved.
Manager's View
"I've got mixed feelings after that game. We've played fantastically well tonight, probably one of our best away performances for a long, long time. We played some cracking stuff on a very heavy pitch. But, if you don't take your chances!
"It reminds me very much of last season. We lost here after playing brilliantly against ten men didn't take our chances and we lost. Well, the same thing has happened today only we didn't lose we drew and it feels like we've been mugged really.
"I don't remember Gary Hateley having a save to make. We've defended very well but anything can happen from a set play. Gary feels he was fouled and ended up in the back of the net with three players around him. We gave a corner away and didn't defend it so at the end of the day the score line is one-one and that's what people will read on the internet and in the papers.
"We know we've created and not taken more than enough chances to have won two or three football matches tonight.
"The only dig I had at the lads at halftime was that we hadn't taken one or two more of the chances we'd created and everyone in football knows that you can get caught and that's what happened tonight and we've come away with a hard earned point instead of a very well earned three.
"But, they say that if you can come away from home and put a shift in and pick points up here and there you're going to be in the mix. From our point of view having got near to the end and played so well to not be driving home with three points is frustrating.
"The performance was encouraging even though we've been forced to make two changes in the first half due to injuries which left our options a little bit limited but everyone on the pitch tonight contributed very, very well.
"We'd spoken to Mickey Lyons about the role he plays and there have been several midweek games away from home where we've played Mickey in the role we asked him to do tonight and it's not worked so we had a chat before the game tonight and told him of the importance of him producing tonight particularly with your top scorer on the bench which possibly raised a few eyebrows. But, we wanted to go a system that worked very, very well for us and it's not about individuals but about the team and we felt that the system we picked and the personnel would work and if we'd have taken another of our chances we'd have been proven right.
"David Blenkinsopp took it on the chin and went on the bench and we hope he reacts in a positive manner and whatever system and formation we chose on Saturday, Tuesday or the following Saturday we'll look and pick the personnel to try and win that game.
"Liam Hebberd had a good massage on Saturday and trained well but it was in the back of my mind not to select him in the starting line-up but we had a late call from Rob Spencer who was in the line-up tonight saying he could make the game so we went with Liam and although he declared himself fit he had a recurrence of his back problem which we need to get to the bottom of.
"It was frustrating because we'd come away from home and had good options on the bench which we want to have a look at for later in the season and we're having to make an early change. But, Karl Bryant came off the bench and did a cracking job and worked very hard for us and showed some glimpses of why we wanted to bring him to the club.
"We are concerned about our defence having picked another injury up tonight. Jamie Barrett came through the game and we had Richard Butler on the bench as a precaution because we didn't want to commit both players to the starting line-up as they'd both had injury concerns and as it would have it our other defender picks an injury up but that's how it goes sometimes and I'm here to try and manage that.
"It's too early to say how long Barry Woolley will be out but it will not be fixed for Saturday. It's a thigh problem, he stretched and felt something go in the top of his thigh so we'll get it iced up and see how it reacts in the next twenty four, forty eight hours and take it from there. We were trying very hard last week to bring in a little bit of cover because we didn't know how long Tom Land would be recovering from injury but I've spoken to Tom and he's declaring himself fully fit. We felt we'd leave him out tonight to give him another week to get fit and we'll have to decide whether to bring him onto the bench or whether he's fit to face Stephan Moor and co on Saturday.
"Our concern about starting Jamie Barrett and Richard Butler tonight was that if they'd reacted to the injuries they'd had it would be too late to get anyone in for Saturday as they need to be signed before the date of the original tie. It's ironic or our luck that Barry Woolley has injured himself and both Jamie and Richard have come through okay.
"I said I wanted to put out our strongest side tonight because it was a difficult game against a side that's been on a brilliant run and it's the league that's the priority and not the Vase and that's why the side was picked tonight from the players I had fit and available at the time."
