Midland Football Alliance
The Moat Ground, Moat Street, Church Gresley
Saturday, 13th August 2011, 3.00pm
Gresley Graft For Three Points
Gresley had to work hard for their three points against Studley at the Moat Ground with second half goals from Aaron Dillon and Royce Turville cancelling out Thomas Lacey's goal.
Manager Gary Norton had to shuffle his side due to having eight first team squad members absent due to holidays, work commitments and injury and then very sad news of a sudden family bereavement saw Rob Spencer withdraw from the squad.
Despite Gresley dominating the first half they found scoring difficult as the Bees defended stoically and keeper Perry Cox pulling off some good saves.
The Moatmen went close with Turville hitting a low shot to end a good move. A minute later Marc Goodfellow's good cross from the left was met with a powerful header from Jermaine Gordon that was cleared off the line.
Goodfellow was causing problems down the left and his pass to Turville set the striker up with a chance that almost crept in at the near post.
The combination of Goodfellow and Turville was working well and between them carved out another chance on 21 minutes but Turville's shot on the turn was blocked at the bear post.
Studley's first effort on goal almost paid dividends but Gresley keeper Gary Hateley, who had been largely unemployed until then, had to react well to block a vicious shot from Paul Dowsett.
With the action once more at the other end, Lee Barrow went close heading Mickey Lyons' free kick just over the bar and minutes later Cox made a superb save down to his right to push Barrow's well taken free kick away for a corner.
Jermaine Gordon then set Turville up in the area but he was crowded out and the chance went away. Studley almost made Gresley pay for not taking their many chances when they went inches away from taking the lead. With just four minutes remaining of the first half Steven Ruck swung over a corner from the right and Dowsett rose above his markers to flick the ball on and was unlucky to see his effort come back off the inside of the far post and cleared by a Gresley defender.
The second half started with Gresley once more creating a chance with Goodfellow curling a shot past the far post. However, on 55 minutes Studley took the lead when a cross from the right found Lacey over on the left and he looped his header over Hateley and into the far corner of the net.
The lead lasted just six minutes. Aaron Dillon replaced Gordon on 61 minutes and almost with his first touch got Gresley back into the game. Goodfellow found the youngster on the left with an inviting pass that was taken up and curled around Cox and into the bottom far corner of the net.
The homeside deserved to take the lead when a superb inter-passing move between Goodfellow and Lyons ended with Lyons sending the ball into Carl Slater's path as he steamed through the middle but his thunderous shot was blocked.
Slater went close again this time as a result of Dillon cutting Tom Betteridge's cross back but the skipper's effort went wide.
Gresley survived another scare when Matthew Collins's free header went straight at Hateley from a good positon.
A harsh decision gave Gresley the chance to take the lead. On 79 minutes Goodfellow created himself some space and his a fearsome shot was adjudged by the referee to have hit the outstretched arm of Craig Hall earning the Bees skipper a yellow card and Gresley a penalty. Turville took the spot kick sending Cox the wrong way.
Hateley earned his side the victory with two superb saves at the end of the match. The first blocking Dowsett's powerfully hit shot and then denying Mark Hands who'd dribbled his way into the area before testing Hateley with a tremendous shot which the keeper saved at the near post.
Manager's View
"That performance was satisfying although we were nowhere happy with it but it was satisfying to get three points after having to dig deep in terms of covering for holidays and absences we had today.
"I think we've got five lads on holiday at the moment but they will start to come back. Looking at the fixtures and the actual date we knew when the fixtures came out that this would be our worst weekend regarding lads being away with holidays but then we had the news yesterday that Richard Hanslow had to work and couldn't get out of it and then Rob Spencer's sad, sad news and we all obviously send him and his family our deepest condolences at the very sad time.
"That meant we were really threadbare. We only had twelve or thirteen fit first team players so we called Rikki Birch into the squad and registered Martin Rowntree as well so I was really pleased to get three points on the back of having to dig deep into our resources but we really didn't play well and I'm not going to hide from that.
"We dominated large chunks of the game to be honest but the quality, tempo and rhythm wasn't there that we are used to and that we expect. Countless times we were giving the ball away cheaply getting us back into trouble and we were not on the same wave length, there were a couple of times when players ran into each other and they've come out with the ball and we really struggled today to get any real rhythm and tempo going.
"There are three players who have come into the side today. Mickey Lyons has been away on holiday and he looked way off the quality and standard Mickey is but that will come - it was a one off today and to be fair to him he had a better second half.
"Royce Turville has come into the side today and looked a little bit ring rusty but boy didn't he put himself about which he always does and then had the nerve to put the penalty away. Ash Day has come into the side after doing well in pre-season. We started the season with Rob (Spencer) but obviously with Rob not being here was Ash's opportunity. All the players who came in did okay but from a team point of view we weren't really happy with the quality of football we play particularly at home.
"The penalty was a harsh one. Whether it struck hands or not his hands were raised in the box - it's harsh put it that way and I'm not going to shy away from that it was a harsh penalty so maybe it was a stroke of luck for us but, at the end of the day, the shot has been stopped with arms and he raised his arms but I can understand their bench being a little bit frustrated at the end with that.
"I was very disappointed with the goal we conceded. A few seconds from one of our corners they've broke and the ball is in our net. We were very disappointed with our recovery both the urgency of it and the shape we had. We were just a yard off it and then a big long diagonal ball, which was a big theme this afternoon from Studley their guy has done well to get on the end of it and it's just looped into the net.
"I said to the guys at half time that it was one of those performances where we are going to have to go a goal down to give ourselves a kick up the backside to get us going and so it proved. Jermaine Gordon came off after the hour and we decided to throw Aaron Dillon on up front so it was pleasing for him to get a quality goal within a couple of minutes of going on and it put us on the front foot.
"We were always on the front foot and any attacks from them were on the counter attack or by long balls but it was the quality of our play that was frustrating constantly breaking down and not quite having the quality we are used to but we persevered. We played a lot better than that last week and got spanked five-one which was the irony against a very good side. If we'd have played like we did today last week at Westfields we could have been on the end of a real hiding but we'll take the three points and the positives from it and we welcome at least two players back on Tuesday who have been away on holiday.
"Regarding Tuesday we'll have to wait and see. One or two or the lads are very tired today. Adam Betteridge hasn't played through injury and has come into today at left back and has got cramp so we'll see how that settles down and we've picked up one or two little knocks as well. Barry Woolley and Jake Duffy are due back for Tuesday and clearly we are not planning to have Rob in the squad as it will be too soon but we'll talk to him over the coming days and see what his thoughts are and how he feels but it may be best to exclude Rob at the moment.
"We should be a little bit stronger for Tuesday squad wise and hopefully we can produce a little bit more quality because we're going to need it. It's a derby and Rocester are going to be up for it and hopefully we will be up for it as well and we can build on these last two wins.
"It's really frustrating for Jordi Gough. We've paid for him to go and see somebody yesterday so he's had some ultrasound and acupuncture and he's been back today but I don't think we are going to see him any time soon. Hopefully we'll have a more detailed prognosis on time scales in the coming days but it's really frustrating given the season he had last year. He's frustrated and we're frustrated but that's why we have a squad to try and cope with things like that."
