Evo-Stik NPL Division One South
The Vic Couzens Stadium Kettering Road Stamford Lincolnshire
Tuesday, 25th September 2012, 7.45pm
Gresley Take A Point At Stamford
Gresley made the long trip back to South Derbyshire with a well deserve share of the spoils from their visit to Kettering Road, Stamford.
Stamford are one of the sides this season who many think will be there or thereabouts come the end of this campaign.
With one eye on Saturday's FA Trophy game joint manager Martin Rowe made changes to the side which beat Stafford Rangers on Saturday giving starts to Gareth Langford, Lavell White, Royce Turville and Richard Hanslow.
Jordan Smith had the first chance when he ran through to beat Gresley's back line only to be denied by an atrocious bounce which made the ball come off his shin and out for a goal kick.
The first shot for the visitors came on 41 minutes but it ended in them taking the lead. Hanslow worked hard deep in the area before hitting a low shot from an acute angle across Stamford's keeper Matt Finlay and into the far corner of the net.
Smith had a good chance to level things just before the break but the shot was well dealt with by Gresley keeper Gary Hateley.
Stamford equalised early in the second half when Andrew Hall ran onto a through ball before putting beyond the diving Hateley and into the far corner. Back came Gresley with White's cross-cum-shot from the left clipping the top of Finlay's bar.
On the hour Hateley made a fine save as he managed to get a finger tip to Gary King's shot to turn the effort away for a corner.
Five minutes later Jamie Barrett went close heading James Jepson's corner from the left. It was then the turn of Finlay to pull off a fine save as he too managed to finger tip Rob Spencer's terrific shot from 20 yards away for a corner.
From the resulting flag kick Gresley took the lead. Substitute Marc Goodfellow slung over the corner from the left causing some confusion in the Stamford box that resulted in the ball being bundled into the net with Hanslow claiming the last touch.
The lead lasted just five minutes when a high ball into Gresley box was punched clear by Hateley under pressure but the ball fell nicely to Hall who sent the ball back into the box to where substitute Sam Mullarkey was on hand to turn the ball home at the far post.
On 80 minutes Hanslow had the chance to score again when he did well to break away from his marker only to fire at the keeper.
Stamford had chances to wrap up all three points in the final minutes. Smith sped through a flat Gresley back line and only had Hateley to beat but he couldn't do it as the keeper made a superb diving save to turn the ball away for a corner.
In time added on Stamford had two attempts cleared off the line but in the end a draw was arguably the fairest result from an entertaining game.
Manager's View
Martin Rowe
"I'm very disappointed with their first goal. We came out and really played well for the first ten minutes of the second half and then we just switched off and allowed their lad Hall to sneak in and put the ball in the back of the net.
"Overall we've really played well tonight. I think it's been our best performance over ninety minutes. We controlled the majority of the first half and when the chance came Richard Hanslow put it away and the second half we did well. We had the majority of the play, kept the ball and did really well. It's just a shame we conceded the two goals other than that very happy.
"Richard got the first goal but we didn't know who got the second but obviously Richard's claimed it and then he broke through and Rob Spencer is there looking at him and all he'd got to do is pass it across the box for Rob to score but Richard's a goal scorer so he goes route one but he's done well again tonight.
"We made some changes for tonight. After the game on Saturday and last night we had a discussion about tonight's game and we felt a few people needed a rest and a few needed a game like Lavell White and Craig Attwood so it gave us the opportunity to bring a few people in and we've done just as well.
"It's a shame Ilkeston have won because I really wanted to play Belper. We played Ilkeston in pre-season and I'm sure Kev Wilson didn't have a full team out then but I'm sure it'll be a completely different game at Ilkeston and we're looking forward to it. We are doing very well on our travels at the moment and we hope that will continue.
"We go into that game as under dogs as all the pressure will be on Ilkeston. They will be expected to win and they'll have good support there. I'd imagine they'll have five hundred supporters willing them to win but we'll have our Gresley contingent there maybe one to two hundred cheering us on. We've probably had fifty or sixty here tonight and they've spurred us on and we've done well."
