Midland Football Alliance
The Moat Ground, Church Gresley
Tuesday, 23rd August 2011, 7.45pm
Hanslow's Double Helps See Off Tipton
Gresley manager Gary Norton brought Aaron Dillon into the starting eleven as defender Barry Woolley was not fit enough to start after suffering a groin injury at the end of Saturday's FA Cup win at Retford.
Lee Barrow resumed his central defensive partnership alongside Jamie Barrett with Tom Betteridge taking the right back position. Rob Spencer took the left wing slot with Dillon over on the right.
Chances were at a premium in the first half but went goal crazy in the second with Royce Turville opening the scoring, Jermain Gordon adding to the tally and substitute Richard Hanslow rattling in two late strikes.
Tipton finished as runners up last season to Coalville scoring just over one hundred goals in the process but they had no answer to Gresley's second half blitz.
The game was barely two minutes old when Gordon did well to shield the ball before turning and hitting a shot that flashed just past the far post.
Both sides were defending well and finding the killer pass a little elusive but Turville managed to get a shot off that the Town keeper Wesley Cox scrambling but the striker's effort went wide of the far post.
Tipton then went close to taking the lead themselves when James Cooper was allowed to continue down the left despite clearly pushing the ball on with his hand but his final shot was pushed away for a corner by Gresley keeper Gary Hateley.
There was little to indicate the rush of goals that was to come in the second half with Lewis Taylor-Boyce hitting a shot that was deflected away for a corner but on 51 minutes the Moatmen were in front.
Tom Betteridge fired an inviting cross into the box and the grateful Turville powered a header past Cox and into the net. Unfortunately, it appeared that the striker injured himself in the process and had to be replaced by Hanslow.
On 59 minutes Hanslow collected the ball in midfield and ran through the middle and let fly with a shot from the edge of the area that Cox could only parry but Gordon was on the spot to smash the rebound home.
One of Tipton's few attempts on goal came when Richard Huckfield put a header over Hateley's bar but then the action turned to the other end were Ashley Day, on for Gordon, almost scored with his first touch as he cut in from the right into the area but fired into the side netting.
Hanslow scored the first of his double on 85 minutes when Gareth Langford threaded the ball through for Hanslow to run onto slicing the Tipton defence into and the young striker got around Cox and despite the keeper getting a hand to the ball he still managed to slip the ball into the net.
Hateley, who had had a largely untroubled evening upt to that point, needed to make a smart save tipping substitute Tom Tonk's rasping shot over the bar.
Hanslow then tested Cox with a shot that the keeper did well to push away for a corner but he could do nothing to prevent the striker from doubling his total for the night. Langford again played Hanslow in and he raced through the middle clear of the Tipton back line before coolly slipping the ball past the onrushing Cox.
Manager's View
"I think the second half was without doubt the best we've played this season. We were really happy with the first half some of the football we played was good and also from Tipton. We said at half time what a good side they were, solid and organised and it was two good sides slugging it out.
"I thought it was quite an open game and we played some really good stuff but more importantly we worked very half and we were solid defensively and we looked organised in the first half but there were one or two issues we talked about at half time that we wanted to work on.
"Second half it was fantastic. We kept the tempo up and remained solid and whether they dropped off but some of the football we played was fantastic. The frustrating thing is that this was just a week on from one of our worse performances and if we'd have played half as well at Rocester we'd have got something from the game.
"We didn't play well at home to Studley last Saturday and we had a bit of a go at the lads and one or two said "we won why are you having a go at us?" but we carried it on into Tuesday and got beat and the kick up the backside we needed. Two solid performances, two clean sheets and we were pleased.
"We were trying to get Royce off just before he scored. The ball went out for a throw-in and I'm shouting to Tom Betteridge not to take it because we wanted to take Royce off because he'd done something to his calf but we took the throw-in and a cross into the box, I think Mickey Lyons took the throw to Tom and he put the cross in and Royce scored and he knew he was coming off so for once I'm glad the lads didn't listen to me!
"Jermaine's goal will give his confidence the world of good. We've spoken about consistency of performance and Jermaine was one of those we'd been talking to about it because when he's playing well he's playing really well like he did on Saturday and we just want those consistent performances from him but we had another good shift out of him but there are still things to work on - he's settling in really nicely. It was a good strike from Richard Hanslow. We thought he might have taken it on a yard or two but he got a shot off across the keeper and fortunately Jermaine was on hand to knock it in.
"From that point on the game opened up and some of our passing was fantastic which we've been critical of before Saturday's game.
"I told Richard that he'd start at Highgate because Royce is away at a wedding but after that performance even if he wasn't he would have been anyway so we were really, really pleased for him. He showed some lovely touches and he was unlucky not to have got a hat-trick but we'll settle for the two."
