Midland Football Alliance
Tythe Barn Lane, Shirley
Saturday, 27th August 2011, 3.00pm
Lyons Uses His Head To Get The Win
This was another game that Gresley should have won by halftime but although they carved plenty of chances the only one came midway through the first half when Mickey Lyons headed home what proved to be the winner.
Gresley manager welcomed back defender Matt Hill but was without several players due to holidays, injury and suspension. Ashley Day, Barry Woolley, Rob Spencer, Carl Slater, Royce Turville, Richard Butler and Jake Duffy were all missing but Marc Goodfellow had recovered from his injury to take a place on the bench along with reserve side player Marshall Goluab who was called into the squad.
Within the first three minutes Gresley had two decent chances to grab an early lead. The first, when Tom Betteridge made a good run down the left easily beating the right back but his cross was hit straight at keeper Shaun Edwards by Aaron Dillon. The second when Jamie Barrett hit a shot over the bar from close range at the far post from Lyons' corner.
It looked as if a goal was coming for the visitors as the action was largely in the United half with half chances being created. Unfortunately, many of the moves were breaking down in the final third without that killing pass that would provide dividends. One move that almost got the goal Gresley were looking for came when Dillon flashed a shot across the goal mouth that skimmed the wrong side of the far post.
As Highgate got slowly into the game it got a little scrappy from both sides but a goal came on 22 minutes for the visitors. Jermaine Gordon showed some good skill down the right before sending over a pinpoint accurate cross that picked out Lyon's who headed the ball past Edwards and into the net.
Gresley should have doubled their advantage 12 minutes later when United substitute Maurice Hartnell was harshly adjudged to have handled a lightning fast ricochet in the area by referee Andy Parker who pointed to the spot. Richard Hanslow took the kick and Edwards chose the right way and blocked the kick. Hanslow pounced on the rebound and yet again the keeper bravely blocked the shot and then Tom Betteridge hit the loose ball past the far post.
A rare attempt on the Gresley goal came on 35 minutes when Reece Hewitt hit a tremendous shot that keeper Gary Hateley did well to palm away for a corner. Hewitt tested Hateley again on the stroke of halftime this time turning on the edge of the area and hitting a low shot that the keeper did well to hold onto down to his right.
Playing down the slope, United looked a far brighter outfit and were soon putting the Gresley defence under some pressure but it was the visitors who went close again on 67 minutes. Awarded a free kick 20 yards out Lee Barrow cracked a superb kick and was unlucky to see his effort come back off the bar with Edwards well beaten.
A good move gave the visitors another chance when Gordon laid the ball into Hanslow's path but the striker looped his shot past the far post. On 72 minutes another chance for Gresley came when Hanslow raced forward but, after rounding the keeper, dallied too long instead of hitting the back of the net and allowed the United defence and keeper to recover and block his route to goal.
The last 15 minutes turned into a niggly affair with warnings from the referee going to both sides after complaints for some of his decisions. One complaint saw Tom Betteridge yellow carded and that proved fatal minutes later when he raced into the box but was clipped by a defender. The travelling Gresley faithful were expecting another penalty kick but to everyone's astonishment Mr Parker chose to show Tom Betteridge a second yellow for diving! After the winger had taken a couple of strides off the pitch and removed his shirt the referee realised his error and showed a red card to the player.
United thought they'd grabbed a late chance to level the game when a player was brought down in the Gresley area. The referee at first pointed to the spot until his attention was brought to his assistant who had had his flag raised for several seconds before the incident indicating offside. After a brief discussion the referee awarded a free kick to Gresley much to the annoyance of the home side and management.
The culmination of poor decisions from all the officials especially during the second half led to the last ten minutes or so being quite fractious and it resulted in United also being reduced to ten men.
In the final few minutes Gresley were keeping the ball near the corner flag to run the clock down and as Dillon was shielding the ball Stefano Abanandi chose to run 20 yards across the pitch before smashing through the back of the Gresley player and fortunately just snapping the corner flag pole and not inflicting a serious injury on the Gresley youngster. Mr Parker had no hesitation in showing a straight red card.
Seconds later the referee wisely brought proceedings to a close.
Manager's View
"The pleasing thing was that we've come through a scrappy game kept a clean sheet and won the game. We should have been out of sight by half time because we missed two good chances maybe three and a penalty. Sometimes you don't put penalties away but on this occasion we said at half time that it could cost us.
"We also had a couple of big chances in the second half and didn't take them so it was always going to be tight and they were never going to give up and it got a little frenetic at the end and fortunately we managed to hold on for three points.
"Royce Turville is our normal penalty taker but he was not here so Richard Hanslow or Lee Barrow have taken them in training and Jermaine Gordon has also taken them but he'd missed one at home. Richard was confident to take it and why wouldn't he after his last performance. He struck it fairly well but the keeper chose the right direction and then the keeper did really well to block the rebound from Richard and we put it wide after that.
"It was frustrating because that could have made it a bit easier and we could have controlled the game a bit better than we did.
"Jermaine put a good shift in for us especially when we went down to ten men. He did work hard today as did a number of the lads. The back four in particular - Jamie Barrett, Lee Barrow. Matt Hill got ninety minutes in and I've got to thank him because he came back off his holiday early because we were so short of players - he cut it a day or two early to play for us. He's done well as I didn't think he would last ninety-minutes but he did. Adam Betteridge, although he hasn't been at the level he has in the last two games, put in a very good shift and was full of running and hard work for us so it was very pleasing.
"We worked hard from the front and none more so than Jermaine which was very pleasing and he was unlucky not to have got more than he did.
"As for Tom Betteridge's sending off, I thought it was a nailed on penalty. Tom had got their guy for pace, pushed it past him and yes he was waiting for the tackle to come, it came and he caught Tom and he went down. But, the referee saw it as though Tom dived but our view was that he was tripped. Ten minutes before that I thought the referee had lost it with one or two decisions that didn't help either side and it got niggley towards the end when it didn't need to be.
"The tackle on Aaron at the end was ridiculous. Marc Goodfellow and Aaron were holding the ball up in the corner and we could see what their guy was going to do. He made a long, long run and he maintains he hit the corner flag and not Aaron and I'm glad about that because I heard a snap and glad it was the corner flag and not Aaron's leg! It's not a sensible thing to do because you're always going to give something away in that position and the referee gave a straight red card.
"For Monday we'll have to do a little body count. Carl Slater has completed his suspension but Marc who did well when he came on is away working in Brighton. We'll have Royce back but the last few weeks has literally been a case of count up your bodies and see what you get. We had a new lad come on today from the reserves Marshall Golaub. He only got a few minutes but an important few minutes working hard upfront. We've only been able to put three outfield players on the bench and one of them we haven't seen before. Hopefully, we're over the worse and we'll start getting some bodies back.
"Loughborough are a good side, a very well drilled side, very organised as well as Westfields who we played in the first game of the season, it's going to our toughest games so far and we'll see how far away we are."
