Midland Football Alliance
Lye Meadow, Alvechurch
Tuesday, 6th March 2012, 7.45pm
Gresley Back On Track
Manager Gary Norton was unable to be at the game due to work commitments but his side bounced back from their surprise defeat at Studley with a solid win at Alvechurch.
Back into the side came Jordi Gough who had missed the trip to Studley due to family commitments in Scotland and Marc Goodfellow who had recovered from a bout of tonsillitis which also saw him miss Saturday's game.
Jamie Barrett took his usual position alongside Michael Nottingham at the heart of the defence with Danny Holmes coming back into midfield.
Alvechurch have improved of late winning their previous four league games with good wins against Stratford, Kirby, Heath Hayes and Highgate. A narrow one- nil defeat at Coventry followed a creditable one-one draw at home to highflying Westfields so a tough game was to be expected.
The home side made the first attempt early in the game when the lively Elliott Nash made a good run down the left before hitting a shot straight at Gresley keeper Gary Hateley who dealt with the danger easily. That proved to be the home side's only shot on target as their finishing was wayward from their limited chances.
Dean Oliver was soon causing the home defence problems holding the ball up well and went close with a shot that was blocked.
On 21 minutes Alvechurch carved out another half chance but this time Nash's wild shot went well wide of the far post.
James Jepson was beginning to take charge of the midfield and from one of his runs down the left Gresley took the lead when his low cross into the box was slammed home by Rob Spencer.
Gresley continued to press forward looking to increase their lead with Holmes hitting a long range effort that screamed by the post. A great touch from Oliver set up Royce Turville who was unlucky to see his shot also fly wide.
The visitors continued in the second half where they left off in the first pressing forward. A long kick from Hateley bounced nicely for Turville off the sloping pitch and seeing the keeper off his line the striker tried his luck with a lob that just cleared the bar.
A corner from Goodfellow saw the woodwork prevent Gresley from doubling their advantage when Barrett headed against the far post.
It was Oliver's turn to try with a header from Holmes' cross but keeper Lewis Gwilliam grabbed the ball just under the bar.
Just to remind Gresley that their hosts had still not given the game up came with just seven minutes of normal time remaining. Nash, now operating down the right, flew past Gough and sent in an inviting cross to substitute Keith Rostill who with time to pick his spot, conspired to hit his shot well wide.
Gresley sealed their victory with a superb strike. Turville cleverly slipped the ball inside to Godfellow who from 22 yards curled an unstoppable shot into the top corner that left Gwilliam rooted to the spot as a mere spectator as the ball flew past him.
The visitors could have added one more deep in time added on but substitute Richard Hanslow's stinging shot was pushed over the bar by Gwilliam.
Manager's View
Martin Rowe:
"I thought we played really well tonight. We put Jamie Barrett back into the defence but looked a little shaky for the first ten minutes but after that I thought we looked really solid at the back throughout the team. It was good to have Danny Holmes and James Jepson back in together. We stuck to four-four-two tonight and it's done well for us.
"The players were very, very disappointed on Saturday. We don't know what was up with them. We did everything normal as usual but it was a bad day at the office and what we've got to make sure of is that we don't have any more of those.
"I think we wanted it more tonight and what we haven't been doing in recent games is working hard for each other and grinding out results and that's what we did today. It was a team effort tonight and it was nice to have Jordi Gough and Marc Goodfellow back but it was a team effort and we did well.
"Tom Betteridge and Kyle Bryant were not included in the squad for tonight and Mickey Lyons at the last minute had to work so there was nothing we could do about that. We have to make difficult decisions but the players stick by us."
