Match Report  |  Northwich Victoria vs Gresley FC

This was a vastly changed side that Gresley faced from the one that visited the Moat Ground in mid November with just two players remaining and one of those was on the bench. A large influx of players had followed manager Lee Ashcroft from Kendal Town to join the Vics a month ago.

Gresley started well on heavy pitch with Richard Hanslow hitting a shot that the keeper Stephen Dickenson could only push away but there was no Gresley player able to collect the loose ball.

Scott Harries almost caught Gresley napping with well taken quick free kick but as he was about to shoot a superbly timed tackle by Jamie Barrett denied him.Vic's Josh Amis went close moments later as he ran on to a through ball only to fire wide of the target.

Gresley took the lead on 20 minutes. A free kick by Barrett was flicked on by the head of Phil Massingham into the box where Jordan Nadat was on hand to sweep the ball into the net.

Nadat went close to adding to his tally when James Jepson's pass down the left but the final shot went wide of the near post.The final chance of the first half fell to Hanslow who hit shot on the turn but his effort was blocked.

Northwich levelled within a minute of the second half starting. Some slack defending by the visitors allowed some good play between Gary McEvatt and Joe Bunney with the latter firing his shot across keeper Gary Hateley and into the far corner of the net.

Danny Holmes then did well down the right before finding Hanslow but the final shot flew past the far post. At the other end a corner from Gary McEvatt was narrowly headed over the bar by Joe Bunney.

On 57 minutes Nadat appeared to have been fouled near the touch-line but a moment of hotheadedness saw his reaction to it noticed by the assistant referee who notified the referee Mr Parry and after a discussion Nadat was shown a red card.

Northwich now sensed a chance to keep their good run going and began to apply pressure on their visitors with Hateley having to make a good block and then they forced four quick sucessive corner which Gresley managed to clear.

Danny Wisdom then brought out another good block by Hateley on his line before the action swung to the other end where Brian Summerskill brought down Dean Rathbone from behind in the area and as he was the last defender and denied a clear scoring chance, was also shown a straight red card by the referee.

Gresley favourite Royce Turville, who had only replaced Hanslow three minutes earlier, chose to take the spot kick and made no mistake blasting the ball past Dickinson to once more give his side the lead.

However, the lead only lasted four minutes as Northwich drew level when a shot from distance by Harries went through a ruck of players in the area and into the net at Hateley's near post.

Northwich went looking for the winner and Hateley had to be alert once more as he saved a low shot but it was the visitors who could have sneaked the points in the end. A good peanlty shout as the ball clearly struck the arm of a defender in the area was turned down by the referee who indicated that it had hit the player's shoulder and then Jepson made a good run into the area firing across the box where substitute Marc Goodfellow got a touch steering it towards the bottom corner but Dickenson somehow managed to get down quickly pushing the effort wide for a corner. Fellow substitute Mickey Lyons was then unlucky to see his goal bound shot deflected away.