FA Carlsberg Trophy Preliminary Round
Bill Stokeld Stadium, Gedling
Saturday, 5th October 2013, 3.00pm
Still Everything To Play For
Gresley and Carlton Town have it all to play for again at the Moat Ground on Tuesday evening after an entertaining game at the Bill Stokeld Stadium ended all square.
Kieran O'Connell gave the visitors the lead only for Sammy McVicar to level four minutes later. The homeside down to ten men took the lead half way through the second half when Martin Ball headed into an empty net but Gresley skipper powered home his header late on to take the tie into a replay.
Gresley manager Martin Rowe made just one change to the starting line-up that faced Brackley Town in midweek with Jordan Nadat replacing Dean Oliver up front. Rob Spencer was still missing but Lucas Harrison returned to the bench after recovering from his recent thigh injury.
It was soon obvious why Carlton are occupying second place in the league as they were soon pressing forward with the impressive McVicar and Jordan Vilums causing the Gresley defence problems and they forced four consecutive corners which the visitors dealt with successfully.
The first shot on target came from Nadat whose effort from distance went straight at Town's keeper Jordan Fell.
Nadat was involved again shortly afterwards and assisted in Gresley taking the lead as he slipped a perfectly measured ball through for O'Connell who finished coolly into the bottom far corner of the net.
Gresley could have doubled their lead three minutes later. This time it was Eric Graves who put O'Connell through but this time the final shot was at Fell.
They were left to rue that wasted chance as Town went up the other end and levelled. Some slack defending allowed McVicar to run across the edge of the area before drilling his shot past Gresley keeper Ross Etheridge.
Town were fortunate not to have been a man down as Fell came rushing out of his area to scythe down Graves but the referee Adam Burgess felt the offence only warranted a yellow card. The resultant free kick by Marc Goodfellow flew wide of the far post.
Just before the break Town were down to ten men. O'Connell had been wrestled to the ground by Josh Thornton and proceeded to compound his offence by petulantly kicking O'Connell as he lay on the floor in full view of the referee giving the official no option but to show a straight red card.
The second half began with Gresley applying some pressure and from a corner taken by Goodfellow John Guy put a header over the bar.
Goodfellow was the width of the woodwork from giving his side the lead when he cut in from the left but his shot smacked against the base of the near post.
To the Millers' credit they began to take charge again and although they were a man light they worked hard forcing the Gresley defence back and they took the lead just after the hour mark. A corner from the right by Lee Potts was only half cleared and a header sent the ball back to the far post where Ball was able to plant his header into the empty net from close in.
At times it was difficult to tell which of the sides were a player down as Carlton continued to fight for every ball and with 13 minutes remaining their hard work almost paid off when Vilums struck a shot against the base of the post.
Rowe decided to change things to try and at least grab an equaliser replacing defender Guy with striker Dean Oliver and within five minutes of the change Gresley were level. Goodfellow whipped in a cross from the left and it was met by Jamie Barrett who powered his header past Fell.
The winner of the replay will have a home tie when they will face Ilkeston FC on Saturday 19th October.
Manager's View
"In hindsight we may have brought Dean Oliver on sooner but we brought him on with fifteen minutes to go but we should have still won the game but credit to Carlton, they really put a shift in and kept putting us under pressure at the back so I always knew it was going to be a gamble to go three at the back but I thought we've got to go for it now.
"We never really got going today. We started well be never had any end product. Jordan Nadat did well up front but we struggled to support him quickly enough.
"I was very disappointed in how we defended today. The first goal was a gift. I think John Guy has gone to play the ball but he missed it and their player went inside and thank you very much. We didn't defend well today but we're still in the competition and we've got them back at our place. We've got to be more positive and a bit more aggressive in the game. Sometimes we seem to peter out.
"I haven't decided on the team for Tuesday yet. I will certainly think of all the performances today because there were quite a few players who weren't hitting their top form. Over the last few games we've had that consistency when everyone knew their job but today that consistency was lacking and if we'd have had it we would have won.
"Carlton are a decent team, I think they are second in the league and are doing really well. We knew it was going to be hard today but I thought we weathered the storm after Kieran O'Connell put that one away and he had another chance just after that and we could have been two-nil up."
