Evo-Stik NPL Division One South
The Moat Ground, Church Gresley
Monday, 21st October 2013, 7.45pm
Gresley Share The Points
Neither side found the conditions to their liking and clear-cut chances where at a premium. The match had been in doubt earlier in the day as the heavy continuous rain threatened to scupper this league game. However, the match went ahead but on a very heavy and slippery surface.
Manager Martin Rowe had to make changes due to injuries to both Mitch Hanson and Danny Holmes with Holmes likely to be out for the next two months due to knee ligament damage.
Sam Grice came back into midfield with John Guy moved to right back and Lucas Harrison back in the left back slot.
It was the visitors who made the early running and Gresley keeper Ross Etheridge had to be alert to save a low shot form Matt Langham. Giovanni Carchedi then brought another save out of Etheridge who had to make a smart block at his near post.
Gresley's first half chance came on the half hour when Rob Spencer got on the end of Jamie Barrett's cross but the header went wide. Two more chances then came for the home side. Paolo Piliero's cross was back heeled by Jordan Nadat but the ball went wide of the far post and then Piliero received the ball from Kieran O'Connell but again the shot went the wrong side of the post.
The best chance of the first half came for the visitors when Langham got the better of the Gresley defence but Etheridge was alert and got a hand to the striker's shot to push it away for a corner at his near post.
Gresley opened the second half brightly with Nadat bringing out a good save from Lincoln's keeper Nathan Burrows. The corner from the right taken by Piliero was headed over the bar by John Guy. Minutes later Gresley went closer when Guy hit a good shot from distance which struck the bar.
With the pitch continuing to get a soaking the rest of the half became very scrappy with niggling fouls conceded by both side.
The nearest either side came to scoring was with 10 minutes remaining when Gresley substitute Dean Oliver's cross hit a defender and Burrows managed to clear the ball off the line.
Manager's View
"I'm disappointed that we didn't win it but not too disappointed that we didn't lose. It was another clean sheet.
"I felt that in the first half we defended okay but we couldn't keep the ball up front and it kept coming back all the time.
"In the second half I felt we asked enough questions of them but couldn't break them down and when we needed a bit of Lady Luck she wasn't there for us at all.
"I think last year we would have lost that but this year the lads have shown a bit of grit tonight after Saturday's game was a very difficult and hard working game for us. We've come tonight on a very difficult and heavy pitch and the lads have done well, I can't criticise them too much.
"I live in Derby and it's been raining all day and I didn't think we would be playing today but the grounds men need a pat on the back for getting the game on tonight. You could see in the warm-up how much the pitch was cutting up and I think it suited them more than it suited us.
"I made two changes bringing in Rob Spencer and Sam Grice. Marc Goodfellow was on the bench. He had a cycle ride yesterday and he worked hard on Saturday and we hoped he'd come on and win the game for us in the last few minutes which he nearly did. Unfortunately it didn't happen. Sam has come in and done well. He's worked hard for saying he hasn't played for three weeks.
"Danny Holmes will be out for eight weeks and Mitch Hanson has a fifty-fifty chance for Saturday. He will be seeing Christina our physio during the week so hopefully he should be okay.
"I saw Marc Strzyzewski on Saturday and he'd just come out theatre. He's okay and recovering but it will be another fortnight before he's back but I thought both Liam Guest and John Guy did well tonight under difficult conditions Lincoln tended to be route one and they coped with it.
"James Jepson has left the club. There was nothing between us - I've always liked James. On Saturday I decided to go with Danny Holmes and not James and he decided it was time to move on and that's what he's done. I'd like to wish him the best wherever he goes.
"We had a chat over the weekend and James let me know on Sunday so we've not had a chance to react. Me and my staff sat down and discussed it and we'll start looking but I think Sam did well tonight and he deserves an opportunity to play on there. We also played Jamie in there last season so we'll look at it and assess what we've got.
"The trophy draw is great, we are at home. We couldn't have wished for any more. Obviously we are playing another team from the Northern Premier League so we will know what to expect and if we show the same commitment we showed against Ilkeston I'm quietly confident.
"I'd prefer to beat Rainworth and Chasetown than progress in the trophy as it would be nice to get points on the board. We are doing well. Obviously we had the blip last week, God knows what happened there but there's nothing we can do about that now. We've just got to concentrate on Saturday and to getting three points at Rainworth. We've then got Chasetown on Monday and to be fair the last time we played Chasetown we were unlucky there.
"We'll be having another keeper from Derby when Ross Ethridge has to leave us. We are just waiting to finalise that and once we've got the details we'll let everyone know. Ross has done well again today under difficult conditions and he's proving to be a very good goalkeeper."
