Midland Football Alliance
The Moat Ground, Church Gresley
Saturday, 24th September 2011, 3.00pm
Spencer Rescues A Point
Gresley were down to the bare bones for this re-arranged game against Bridgnorth Town with nine first team squad members missing due to injury and other commitments.
It was a proverbial game of the halves with the visitors shading the first half in which they could easily have been two goals to the good by the break and in the second Gresley could have taken all three points but ,and not for the first time in recent games, the chances went begging.
Town showed their intent with an early shot from Karl Griffiths that flew just over the bar. It was then the turn of Philip Groves to try his hand but his shot following Ashley Jones' cross also missed the target. The visitors were on top and a cross saw Craig Forbes plant a header wide when well placed.
Gresley's first chance came on 15 minutes when debutant Dean Oliver laid the ball back to Mickey Lyons who curled a shot that beat Town keeper Christopher Crook but crashed back off the bar.
The action then flew to the other end with Jones goal bound shot taking a deflection out for a corner.
Ashley Day and Jermaine Gordon then played a one-two but the resultant shot from Gordon from the edge of the area went wide of the mark.
Gresley found themselves behind on 62 minutes when a cross from the left only just cleared the head of Adam Betteridge and fell nicely for Lewis Welch who drilled his volley past keeper Darren Keeling and the far post.
The home side were sparked into life and Jack Coulson went close heading Lyons' corner wide of the far post and a pass from Day gave Rob Spencer the first of a few chances but this time his shot flew across the face of the goalmouth.
However, a couple of minutes later Gresley did get their deserved equaliser. A great move down the middle saw Day send a ball through to Gordon who flicked it on to Lyons who in turn threaded a glorious ball through to Spencer who this time made no mistake and smashed a low shot into the far corner of the net.
Day and Gordon were involved again and almost combined to give Gresley the lead. Day's cross was cushioned back to Lyons who hit a first time shot over the bar.
Spencer then turned provider sending an inviting cross over to substitute Aaron Dillon who met the ball with a powerful close-range header but somehow Town keeper made a breathtaking save to deny the youngster.
With none minutes of normal time remaining Gresley were almost caught out as they pressed forward looking for the winner. Substitute Joe Salt caught the home back line square and raced forward only to be thwarted by Keeling's block.
Town went close again on 84 minutes when Salt's corner looked to heading straight into the net but the ball was cleared off the line by Tom Betteridge. The ball was only half cleared and fell to Griffiths who was denied by the cross bar.
Once more, the action swung to the other end with Carl Slater having a shot cleared off the line but the final say of the game went to Bridgnorth deep into time added on but Keeling made a fine save to push Salt's shot away for a corner.
Manager's View
Martin Rowe
"I view that as two points lost. I was disappointed last weekend when I thought we should have got something out of the game.
"We struggled today but obviously we had quite a few players out, five first team players but that's no excuse as we've got a big enough squad to win games like today but we never had that bit of luck in front of goal.
"Rob Spencer missed a sitter, Aaron Dillon has come on and could have got a hat-trick and we could go on. Mickey Lyons went close, Carl Slater went close but overall we kept going and kept working hard as a team and I felt we just about deserved to win it.
"It's a bit early to assess Dean Oliver. It's quite obvious that he's going to need a few games to settle in but he's a big lad with good movement and he just needs a bit of time to settle in.
"Jamie Barrett has had his injury for sometime so he was rested today and he's fifty-fifty for next week but if he's not right we may even have him on the bench. Barry Woolley is probably three weeks away if not longer. Matt Hill has unfortunately gone down with a bug today; Royce Turville might make the bench next week. Mark Goodfellow was away celebrating his birthday but they are things we have to deal with and having a big squad has helped us today.
"I thought Mickey Lyons did very well today, looking for the ball all the time and made us play a bit. I also felt that Jack Coulson also had a good game. Jack's been waiting for his chance and he's come in today and has done really well. "
