FA Carlsberg Trophy Preliminary Round
Central Ground, Coles Lane, Sutton Coldfield
Saturday, 15th September 2012, 3.00pm
Goodfellow Strike Puts Gresley Through
A Marc Goodfellow strike on 62 minutes was enough to see Gresley through to the next round of the FA Trophy at Coles Lane Sutton Coldfield Town.
Gresley joint manager Martin Rowe made several changes from the side that beat Thurnby Nirvana in midweek with Michael Nottingham, Jordi Gough and Mickey Lyons all returning to the squad. Young reserve team goalkeeper George Woodward handed his first team debut as both Gary Hateley and Tom Gutteridge were unavailable due to work commitments and injury respectively.
Sutton play on an artificial 3G pitch and Gresley took time to settle into the games as they got used to the surface. But, it was the visitors who went the closest when on 10 minutes a free kick by James Jepson was headed down to Richard Hanslow by Nottingham but somehow the young striker put his effort over the bar from close in.
Despite having a lot of the ball Sutton were not putting any pressure on Woodward who looked calm and self assured dealing with anything which may have been dangerous.
The main danger from the home side were the terrific long throw ins from Kristian Ramsey-Dickson but they were well dealt with by the Gresley defence.
Just after the half hour mark, Gresley went close again when Rob Spencer made a good run down the right before sending a low cross into the box that Phill Massingham could not quite get on the end of. Spencer then went close himself hitting a shot that flew over the bar.
The nearest the home side got to threatening the Gresley goal came just before the break when a corner from the right by Dean Rathbone was headed wide by Joel Kettle.
The second half started much like the first half with neither side carving out any clear-cut chances. However, on the hour mark Spencer was hacked down a couple of yards outside the area earning Luke Chapman a yellow card for his trouble and from the resultant free kick Goodfellow hammered a low shot that skimmed the outside of the post.
Two minutes however Gresley took the lead when Hanslow laid the ball back to Goodfellow who then curled a delicious shot out of the reach of home keeper Paul Hathaway and into the top far corner of the net.
Town hit back almost immediately putting the Gresley goal under pressure but a combination of stubborn defending and brave goal keeping prevented the home side from equalising.
After weathering the storm Gresley played out the rest of the game comfortably and now await the outcome of the Biggleswade Town v Halesowen Town game which ended in a two-all draw to see who they play in the next round.
Manager's View
Martin Rowe
"I don't think it was that bad a performance today. A clean sheet and won one-none. I think it took us a long time to get used to the pitch if I'm truthful.
"With it being an artificial pitch you don't get a natural bounce and it took the lads a bit of time but we slowly worked ourselves into the game and did well and limited them to long-range shots and then we started to create things as time went on.
"The lads really work hard for Marc Goodfellow and do a lot of his work for him but that's why he's on the pitch because he's capable of scoring goals like that week in, week out and that's what he gives us that bit of extra to win games.
"We made changes today, all for the right reasons. Obviously some players don't like it but at the end of the day we're trying to rest players and get fresh legs on.
"It is difficult at times leaving players out. It's not a nice job to do but I always seem to get it. I'm not flavour of the month unfortunately.
"When we first knew that Tom Gutteridge was out I rang the reserve team manager up and asked how George Woodward was doing and he said he's doing well, and he's brought that into the game today.
"George looked very experienced for a very young player. He did nothing wrong. His kicking was good, his catching was good and he commanded his area and that gives me another hard decision for Tuesday - do we keep him or bring Gary Hateley back in.
"Both Michael Nottingham and Jordi Gough were unavailable last Tuesday's game but we felt we just needed a bit more for today's game and that's why we brought those players back into the game.
"Dan Douglas and Jamie Barrett have both done well for us but it's a team game and we're all in it together and we just need to stick together."
