Evo-Stik NPL Division One South
The Moat Ground, Church Gresley
Saturday, 17th November 2012, 3.00pm
Gresley Dig Deep To Beat Miners
Gresley made two changes to the side that overcame Northwich in midweek with young keeper George Woodward replacing Gary Hateley who is away on work commitments and Matt Roome who took the right back slot allowing Jamie Barrett to partner Marc Strzyzewski at the heart of the defence.
The visitors started well with Blair Anderson firing wide and Woodard blocking Jordan Turner's effort at his near post. Turner then flicked Anderson's corner kick just wide of the far post.
Gresley began to get back into the game and Rob Spencer flicked a header on to Jordan Nadat who had his shot blocked by keeper Joe McCormack but minutes later it was the visitors who went close again when Karl Slack beat the offside trap but with only Woodward to beat flashed his shot wide of the far post.
On 26 minutes Phil Massingham flicked a ball over the Rainworth defence for Nadat to run on to. The young striker rounded the keeper but his shot was then blocked. He latched onto the rebound but McCormack managed to block his second attempt and the ball bounced off the bar for a corner.
As the half drew to a close Gresley were on top with Nadat picking out Massingham who couldn't quite connect well enough and then Jepson found Spencer but his shot was saved by McCormack at his near post.
Gresley took the lead six minutes into the second half when Jepson's corner from the right was slammed home by Barrett.
Nadat was unlucky on the hour mark when his header came back off the bar but a minute later the goal Gresley deserved came. Jepson sent a superb ball down the left to Massingham who in turn sent a low cross into the box where the waiting Spencer finished off cleanly.
A rare effort on goal by from the visitors' substitute Ryan Goward was comfortably dealt with by Woodward.
The game was wrapped up with nine minutes remaining when Spencer made a fine run down the left before picking out substitute Richard Hanslow who thumped the ball past McCormack at the near post.
Rainworth could or perhaps should have scored a consolation goal as the game drew to a close when Turner headed over the bar from a very good position. However, the final chance came to Gresley in time added on when a dash down the right by Hanslow resulted in a low cross which Spencer almost connected with as he came sliding in.
Manager's View
"There are many pleasing aspects of today's game but the most pleasing is the clean sheet without any shadow of a doubt. Young George has come in and he's played twice before this season in the league cup and the Trophy both games I missed due to work commitments and a wedding but I like what I see I really do.
"He does the simple things very well and kicks well, handles well and he deserved his clean sheet today and got a round of applause from the players in the dressing room which was fully deserved. I was really pleased with that.
"The way we played in the first half I thought we controlled the game but going in at nil-nil I was a little bit worried that if we dropped off it a little bit in the second half. Perhaps dominated is a too strong a word but we had a lot of half chances. A couple of really good chances from the likes of Jordan Nadat and Phil Massingham when he put one wide but the guys kept going and can take some plaudits for a change today.
"There probably will not be too many replies to posts on the internet. When we lose there are three pages worth of comments but when we win there are about four comments but that sums some people up around here.
"It's the same centre halves who played last week and one of them got absolutely crucified on the internet. I've told them to stop reading it. There is criticism on there that is fair enough and we accept it but there is a small portion of people who come out with some absolute tripe on there. I don't read it myself.
"By all means if we play badly and concede goals like we did last week have a pop at us but be constructive and look at the bigger picture as well. Most of these lads could go on and earn a lot more than they are earning here as the chairman alludes to in his programme notes.
"We know we've been inconsistent and we know we've been shipping too many goals. We've done nothing different this week with the players and kept a clean sheet and beat Northwich in midweek. We didn't train on Thursday, we gave them a night off because we had a few midweek games and they've trained very hard for the last ten weeks or so.
"We are really pleased with the back-to-back wins and will try to make it three on the trot on Tuesday when we are at home to Romulus who beat us in the league cup a couple of weeks back.
"The emphasis is on hard work. The lads will be tired of hearing me keep going on about that but if you get the basics right in games and working hard and closing down by getting across the pitch is one of the basics I like to see in the team. Even last week at Kidsgrove where we maybe didn't play as well in the second half, there was no lack of commitment. It was just a bad day at the office.
"But let's focus on the positives; we've got a real good win today against a hardworking side who are just behind us in the table. Richard Hanslow has gone on and got a goal. He's subject to a seven day approach from Mickleover Sports which runs out in midweek. We've spoken to him and he knows what we think of him and how much we value him. He's not in the side at the moment but I'm sure when he gets his chance, if we can keep him, he'll do what he did today and only he could score a goal like he did and stick it in from where he did having got the chance.
"Its good stuff and the seven days keep coming in meaning we have some good players here and it's hard to keep them all. We can't play them all and everyone will have their own opinions about who should start and who shouldn't but me and Martin will make what we feel are the genuine decisions for the club. There are intimations on the internet that there are favourites at the club but we try and pick our strongest side.
"We've put seven days in for a couple of players. One of them wants the weekend to think about it. One we have registered but there is a complication with one of his previous clubs so we are trying to resolve that and we are waiting to talk to another player so we'll see what happens. We are just trying to cover ourselves because we have got some injuries.
"Lavell White has been released to join Eastwood. He's a lovely lad and has been doing a lot of travelling and not got many minutes. We told him he needs to get some regular games somewhere. There was no fall out as some believe when players leave Gresley it's a myth. It's not an unhappy ship. It's the same with Itchy if he leaves it won't be through falling out. He left two years ago to join Heather and get regular football in a similar position and he came back to join us and help us win the league. We are hopeful of keeping him. Mickleover have already pinched one very good player from us this season and I don't want them to take a second.
"We are just going through a little bit of re-building not massively but one or two fringe players who we need to move on we will move on. Gareth Langford hasn't been available for the last few weeks because of University commitments but he's now available for a month and he'll be a good asset for us so it's good to have him back around the place. Danny Holmes will be available for Tuesday.
"In fairness to Ryan Walker and his club Thurnby Nirvana, they helped us out. We didn't have to put seven days in so he could help us out last Tuesday night. We are interested in signing him on a permanent basis but in fairness to Damien at Thurnby if he'd have played for us today it would have left him short which wouldn't be fair on them so we're going to see what happens over the next week or so with that one. We've told Ryan that we'd like him to make that step up on a permanent basis but it was fair that he played for Thurnby because they helped us out.
"If that doesn't work out we are in talks with another defender just to come in and put a bit of pressure on the guys. We are hoping Michael Nottingham will be fit for Tuesday. Sam Woods has come through warm-up today and had a little bit of treatment and feels he could be fit for Tuesday as well and Dan Douglas is due to start training in the next week providing he has no reaction to what he's been doing so maybe we don't need some of the guys who are going to come in because the injuries might start to clear up.
"Matt Roome will not be available for Tuesday so if Notts is fit then Jamie Barrett maybe could slide out to full back again. Rob Spencer could do a job there. He's played fantastically well for us against Kidsgrove. It's not his natural position and we've seen again today what Rob can do further up the pitch so we'd prefer to have him further up the pitch so we'll see who is available and as I said earlier we will pick the side that we think will do the best job and the strongest side possible on Tuesday and see where we go."
