Evo-Stik NPL Division One South
The Moat Ground, Chruch Gresley
Tuesday, 4th September 2012, 7.45pm
Gresley Slip To First League Defeat
Despite having most of the possession Gresley couldn't prise open some solid defending from their visitors Newcastle Town and slipped to the first league defeat.
Andy Nicholls put the visitors ahead in the first half with possibly their first shot on target but Rob Spencer equalised for Gresley almost on the halftime whistle. However, two second half goals ensured Town travelled back to Staffordshire with all three points.
For the first half hour or so neither side carved out a chance but the game burst into life on 29 minutes when a low free kick from James Jepson brought out a fine diving save from Town keeper Dave Parton who pushed the effort away for a corner.
Three minutes later however the visitors took the lead when Nicholls cut in from the left and drilled a low shot out of the reach of Gresley keeper Tom Gutteridge and into the far bottom corner.
Five minutes later Jordi Gough was denied when Parton made another good save down to his left. Parton couldn't do anything with the next attempt on goal. Lavell White picked Spencer out a couple of yards outside the area with a pass and Spencer made no mistake smashing the ball past the helpless keeper.
Almost from the start of the second half Town regained their lead courtesy of a fluke. Gresley were slow to react to a short corner on the right and James Askey whipped in a cross which to his and everyone else's amazement sailed into Gutteridge's far top corner.
Town could, or rather should, have added to their total on 54 minutes when a slip from Jamie Barrett allowed Nicholls to race forward towards goal but the final shot was a poor one which went straight at Gutteridge.
Joint manager Martin Rowe made three changes replacing Phil Massingham, Craig Attwood and Lovell White with Royce Turville, Mickey Lyons and Marc Goodfellow in the hope of at least grabbing a point and it was Goodfellow who went close firing a shot that fizzed the wrong side of the post.
Dean Oliver had a shot that looked to have been on target deflected while at the other end Kyle Diskin flashed a free kick across the face of Gresley's goal with no-one on hand to put the ball away and Neville Thompson having a shot blocked at the near post.
The game was sewn up in Town's favour deep into added time. Gresley had pushed everyone forward looking to salvage a late share of the points and were caught out when a long punt up field sent Nicholls scampering forward and he coolly finished his run by slipping the ball past the advancing Gutteridge.
Gresley almost grabbed another goal when Michael Nottingham headed the ball to Turville in the area but his shot went straight at Parton.
Manager's View
Martin Rowe
"We weren't at it tonight. I don't know why. If you looked at us on Saturday everything was right. Tonight we couldn't get going.
"Newcastle were first to everything and they wanted it more. I was disappointed in our players tonight they really didn't want it as much as they did.
"These are the games we should win but at the end of the day we didn't battle hard enough to win the game.
"We'd fought our way back and then there was a sucker punch, we'd gone to sleep. There was a short corner and the lad's just lobbed it in and unfortunately it went into the top corner. But, I think most likely they practice that but normally one goes to the near post but unfortunately the lad got too much on it and it really knocked us.
"We tried to get back into the game. I made three substitutions bringing Mickey Lyons, Royce Turville and Marc Goodfellow on but it just wasn't our night tonight and the more we tried the worse we got.
"There may be changes for Saturday. We've just had a chat in the dressing room and I basically told them that they'd let me and Gary down tonight and most of all they've let the supporters down.
"Three hundred plus game we should be doing a lot better than that. It's most likely the worst game at the Moat since I've been here because we didn't get the ball down and play, I don't know why. We kept driving it high and they kept saying thank you very much.
"We'll bounce back. Sometimes we need a bit of a kick up the backside and they've certainly had it tonight after the game from me and it's up to them to show a bit of character which I'm sure they'll do."
