Midland Football Alliance
The Beeches, Packwood Rd, Tividale
Saturday, 10th March 2012, 3.00pm
Gresley Keep Up The Pressure
Two goals in as many minutes in the second half turned this game on its head as Gresley kept up the pressure on the league's leading pair of Westfields and Coventry Sphinx
Gresley manager Gary Norton was forced to make changes as his midfield pairing of James Jepson and Danny Holmes began their suspensions with Gareth Langford and Mickey Lyons taking the roles and Tom Betteridge taking a place on the bench.
The first half was a fairly even affair but scrappy on a very uneven surface. Gresley had the first chance when a flowing move involving Dean Oliver and Royce Turville ended with the ball put through to Rob Spencer who had his shot well blocked by the legs of Tividale's keeper Luke Stevens.
Tividale took the lead in somewhat fortunate circumstances on 22 minutes. Gresley's left back Jordi Gough was unlucky to see his clearance cannon back off a Tividale player into the path of Ryan Trumpeter who raced forward before slipping the ball past visiting keeper Gary Hateley.
Gresley hit back almost immediately when Marc Goodfellow hit a superb volley that Stevens did very well to block but he couldn't do anything to prevent the next attack.
Michael Nottingham won the ball deep in the Gresley half and pushed his path to Goodfellow who in turn threaded a perfect ball through to Turville who hit a precise shot past Stevens and into the far bottom corner of the net.
Tividale responded with a quick break which almost caught Gresley off guard and Michael Woolman flew down the right and hit a low shot which Hateley did well to hold on to.
Hateley then prevented the home side from taking the lead once more when he made a terrific reaction save to push an effort away which he must have seen very late coming through a crowded box.
A quick break then saw Gresley go close as Lyons's pass set up Spencer whose shot was pushed away for a corner by Stevens.
The first half ended with Jamie Barrett heading Goodfellow's corner from the left towards goal but Stevens held on just under the bar.
With less than forty seconds of the second half on the clock Gresley found themselves behind once more. Gresley gave away a needless free kick over on the left and Daniel Ashton's kick was met by Woolman totally unmarked in the box and he gave Hateley no chance as he powered his header home. Hateley again came to Gresley's aid making another good save to deny Woolman his second goal of the game.
How would the visitors respond? Superbly! Gresley hit back and were level once more after just three minutes and in front a minute later.
Langford did well to get into the area and lay the ball on for Lyons who chipped Stevens for Gresley's equaliser and straight from the re-start they were in front when a clever one-two between Turville and Oliver ended with Oliver slipping the ball past Stevens.
From that moment Gresley began to take control of the game and looked the most likely of the two sides to score again.
On 54 minutes Tom Betteridge replaced Matt Hill who had been clattered in the first half and it had an almost immediate effect on the game as he ended a good footballing move by putting a pinpoint pass through for Lyons who hit a shot just wide of the post.
He then assisted in Gresley's fourth goal when he picked out Oliver. Still with lots to do the striker held off the attention of his marker, cut inside and beat Stevens with the goal of the game.
Lyons then had a low shot held by Stevens and in the last seconds of normal time Goodfellow almost repeated his superb goal at Alvechurch as he curled an effort towards the far top corner but unfortunately this time it went the wrong side of the post.
Deep in time added on Gresley went close twice more. First substitute Richard Hanslow laid the ball back to Lyons who scuffed his shot and as the ball headed towards the far post Goodfellow and Turville were inches from connecting and then Hanslow did well to turn in the area but his shot was pushed away for a corner by Stevens.
Manager's View
"We were a bit unlucky with their first goal. The ball had a bit of a ricochet and their guy found himself in an onside position and put it away very well. We were disappointed with it but it was one of those things. It was fortunate for them. I don't know if Jordi Gough was trying to make a pass but it took a ricochet and the nine was through and he slotted it away well.
"But, having hauled ourselves back into the game - to be fair their keeper has made a couple of good saves in the first half - and I thought we had the better of the chances in the first half against the elements and we were fairly happy going in one all having not played particularly well in the first half.
"One of the last things you say as you come out of the dressing room is to keep things tight, get into the half and get the ball down and try and play put pressure on them and then thirty five seconds into the half you find yourself a goal down. Matt Hill gave a sloppy free kick away and we've not defended it well at all and they've scored so yes we were really disappointed with that one.
"But I have to say the reaction of the lads was fantastic and four minutes later we were three-two up and we then did get hold of the game. We got a deserved fourth and on the balance of play we thoroughly deserved the three points at a difficult place to come.
"These are a good side. They are much changed from the side that visited us in December but you don't get anything cheap here. These guys have got a good little outfit here and have some good young players and experienced players as well and we had to work every inch to get the three points today and we knew we would do.
"I thought the guys who went in to replace Danny Holmes and James Jepson did well. I thought Gareth Langford did a real good shift against a very difficult opponent their number eight who is very physical and good in the air. I thought Mickey Lyons did alright as well. He's often played in the midfield four for us as it's his favourite position and he got a goal for us. We've got very different players in there but we won the game and that's the main thing. The change of personnel has show with the resources we've got we can dig deep and grind three points out. The guys who came in did very, very well.
"Tom Betteridge did really well when he came on. I was a bit frustrated because Matt Hill didn't have the best of starts to the game. He took a bang on the head in the first half and I was going to give him five or ten minutes of the second half to see if he settled and thirty seconds in he gave away a cheap free kick and then he's not dealt with one or two routine things so we made the bold decision to take him off and bring Tom Betteridge on and he did well. Matt has done brilliant for us in recent games but this afternoon he wasn't quite at it but he'll bounce back from it, he's a good player.
"We've had four or five weeks on the trot with midweek games but the injuries and the knocks we've got are starting to tell now. We did try to get a midweek game arranged but couldn't so we've got a clear midweek but we'll train and try and get ourselves ready for what will be our fifth away game on the trot and see if we can pick up a point or three there.
"I said at the start of this little patch that if we could get ten or twelve points from this run of away games we'd be fairly happy with ourselves. I'd be happy with ten but I'd be delighted with twelve."
