Evo-Stik NPL Division One South
The Moat Ground, Church Gresley
Saturday, 23rd November 2013, 3.00pm
Romulus Put To The Sword
Two second half goals in a minute from substitutes Jack Langston and Mickey Lyons saw Gresley take all three points at the Moat Ground.
At the half time break Gresley found themselves trailing from a Craig Marshall goal but had had enough chances to have been two or three goals to the good and it took a gritty fight back to get them the win they needed.
Gresley manager Martin Rowe made two changes to his starting line-up with Hayden Johns replacing Mitch Hanson and Alex Steadman coming into the midfield.
Kieran O'Connell went close to opening the scoring when he raced onto a ball but the onrushing Romulus keeper Lewis Exall blocked his effort. Gresley went close again six minutes later this time Steadman's suprb run down the right ended with a whipped in cross which was met by Piliero but his bullet header crashed back off the bar with O'Connell firing the rebound over.
Sam Grice then hit a thunderous volley which Exall did extremely well to get a finger to tipping it out for a corner.
Romulus got back into the game and forced Gresley keeper Alex Townsend into a fine save as Marcus Brown smashed in a free kick. Lee Smith then put a header over the bar from Thomas Turton's corner.
The visitors took the lead with five minutes of the first half remaining. Another corner from Turton over on the right was met by Marshall who was able to plant his free header into the net.
Romulus started the second half well with Townsend diving low to his right to push Brown's free kick away. Minutes later Brown went close again firing wide on the turn.
Gresley began to apply pressure with Jamie Barrett having a header cleared off the line and Langston having a goal bound shot deflected away for a corner.
Langston took the corner from the left and he managed to curl the ball over the head of everyone in the box and into the far corner of the net.
With less than a minute on the clock Gresley doubled their lead. A great move down the left ended with a shot blocked in the box. The ball came out to Lyons who slotted the ball back into the net with Exall helpless.
Langston then forced a good save from Exall at his near post but the game wasn't safe for Gresley yet as Romulus had two chances to force a draw at least. A terrific shot from Lee Smith seemed to catch Townsend out but the keeper was saved when the ball smacked his near post. The ball eventually landed over on the right of the area and a shot was blocked on the line by Barrett.
Gresley responded well to the scare and went close twice themselves late on when O'Connell had a low shot held by Exall and as a result of another good footballing move Steadman unleashed a shot which needed to be blocked.
As the game drew to a close Romulus had one more attempt to get a share of the points but Townsend was equal to Blake Thompson's low shot holding onto the ball well diving to his right.
Manager's View
"It's so frustrating. We started the game well. The first fifteen minutes we really should have been two-nil up and I think we would have gone on to win the game quite easily and then it became a bit of a battle. We couldn't get hold of the game and they started to pressurise us with direct football.
"They then got the goal making things even more depressing. We had a good chat at halftime. The lads were disappointed they felt that after our win last week they would take that into the game today but it didn't quite happen.
"Second half wasn't very good so we changed it and went to a four-three-three. I think Eric Graves got involved in the game and started us going forward. Mickey Lyons and Jack Langston both did well and turned the game for us. We were able to get on the ball a bit more in midfield. I felt Paolo Piliero and Sam Grice were struggling to get involved in the game and that's why we changed it.
"You couldn't really blame Paolo because we changed it at halftime and we put Alex Steadman up front and brought Paolo into midfield to help midfield out.
"Mitch Hanson is on a training course training to be a personal trainer. These courses were pre-booked before he came to us and Rob Spencer was at a wedding today. Marc Strzyzewski cut his head at Shepshed so he wasn't able to play but we're hoping Strez and Rob will be available next week. We've just got to find out about Mitch as it a weekend course over the next two weekends so potentially he could be missing next week. It would be a blow but that's what you have to deal with. Just when you think things are looking rosy players become unavailable or get injured
"I was disappointed with the quality of our set pieces today after last week at Sheffield. What summed our game up today was John Guy's first free kick. I think he was caught in two minds, 'shall I hit it or shall I cross it?' and he did neither. We were never quite there today.
"Over the past months the lads have done well and it's not bad one bad game in a couple of months and we go into next week's game still undefeated, playing well and I know this bunch of lads will raise their game for next week and they are going to have to.
"We did well against Brackley in the FA Cup and we did well against Ilkeston so there is no reason we can't go to Wrexham and will. But, obviously the odds are against us. I don't know if they are full time, I'd imagine they are and we are just little old Gresley and there might be a little old sting in the tail.
"We were due to play Eastwood on Tuesday. Unfortunately Santa is coming to Eastwood on Tuesday so they are shutting the town off so traffic couldn't get to the ground but it will be a welcome break for us so we can concentrate on next Saturday's game. We will have just one training session and we've got a few things to work on at Repton this week.
"We've had a couple of reports on Wrexham come through. They are a good team but you expect that from a Conference team. We are going to enjoy it as we did last Saturday and I'm sure the supporters will as well. The supporters were great last week and got behind the team when they were two -nil down and helped us to go on and win and hopefully we'll have that again next week."
