FA Carlsberg Trophy Preliminary Round Replay
The Moat Ground, Church Gresley
Tuesday, 8th October 2013, 7.45pm
Millers Ground Down By Gresley
Gresley ground out a deserved win over Carlton Town in the replay of the Preliminary Round of the FA Carlsberg Trophy at the Moat Ground with goals from Mitch Hanson and Mickey Lyons.
Manager Martin Rowe made several changes to the side that faced the Millers on Saturday with Lucas Harrison, Liam Guest, Danny Holmes, Dean Oliver and Harry Austin all coming into the starting line-up.
The opening to the game was almost identical to the previous game with Carlton applying the early pressure and Gresley's Ross Etheridge being the busier of the two goalkeepers. First he had to tip over a shot from Lee Potts and minutes later blocking a low shot from Sammy MacVicar at his near post. Etheridge was busy again this time turning Daniel Elliott's low shot away for a corner.
Gresley began to settle into the game and Eric Graves tested the Millers' keeper Martin Kearney who held the shot.
One of the highlights of the game came midway through the first half. Harrison drove through midfield before unleashing a screamer of a shot from 30 yards that Kearney couldn't hold and the ball looped over his shoulder but unfortunately onto the bar before bouncing back into the grateful keeper's arms.
To prove it was no fluke, a couple of minutes later Harrison struck another cracker of a shot after the ball had come back off the wall from Holmes' 22 yard free kick but this time the ball went straight at Kearney who managed to hold onto it.
MacVicar had two good chances to open the scoring for the visitors but failed to take either. First he ran onto a ball down the left but lifted his shot over the bar and then planted his free header from Jordan Vilum's good cross wide of the far post.
Gresley took the lead on 51 minutes when a free kick from Holmes was looped into the far corner of the net by Hanson. Austin went close to doubling his side's advantage but his low shot was held by Kearney.
The homeside were now in control, working hard and putting Carlton under pressure. A good move between Oliver and Jordan Nadat ended with a well struck shot from Nadat which Kearney fumbled out for a corner.
After a brief spell of pressure from the visitors, Gresley broke quickly and ended the move with Oliver shooting narrowly wide of the mark
Despite few second half chances from Carlton they should have levelled with just six minutes remaining but again MacVicar squandered a golden opportunity for his side heading substitute Luke Smithson's perfectly delivered cross well wide of the target.
They were to rue that miss as Gresley sewed the game up just two minutes on. Kieran O'Connell was tripped as he flew down the left and referee Akil Howson played a good advantage allowing substitute Mickey Lyons, with almost his first touch of the ball, to coolly stroke the ball past the advancing Kearney.
Gresley's reward is a home tie against Evo-Stik Premier side Ilkeston FC on Saturday 19th October.
Manager's View
"Sometimes decisions come off and sometimes they don't. I'm sure that if it hadn't come off the internet would have been full tonight.
"We decided to rest a few players. We wanted to have a look at Harry Austin; we wanted to have a look at playing in a four-four-two. Some people said we shouldn't be experimenting in a Trophy game but I wanted to be a bit more attacking tonight.
"First half I thought Carlton played well, put under a lot of pressure but defensively we came in with a clean sheet and I was quite happy and quite confident that we would go on and win the game.
"Mitch Hanson popped up again with a flick, I don't know if he meant it but he said he did and that gave us the confidence to go on. It was nice to see Mickey Lyons get a goal. Mickey hasn't had much pitch time recently and it's nice to see he still has a great attitude for the game.
"Lucas among the others, who have come in, had a good game. I was chatting to Marc Strzyzewski and he said what if they all have a good game? I said well, that decision is down to me. We've got a very important game on Saturday. We are playing Belper who are potentially one of the teams that will win the league. If not, I'd be very surprised if they don't even make the play-offs but I think Belper are hot favourites to win this league and Saturday is a very big game for us.
"It's a sort of another test to see where we are and how we've improved since the beginning of the season.
"We've got Halesowen on Tuesday which is a very difficult place to go to especially with it being an evening game but we are doing well and the confidence is high and we've got to keep improving and a few more additions will keep everybody on their toes.
"I phoned John Guy on Sunday just to let him know what I was doing because John has to use his holidays up to play for Gresley and I said to him he was going to be on the bench so John decided to work so that's fair enough for me. We've got a big enough squad and John will be back on Saturday.
"I think Harry Austin needs a few games. It was always going to be a bit of a gamble to play him but in training he's been very impressive. Harry will get better as time goes along. Harry can play in a few positions. Wide left might be his best position but he can play better than that and I'm sure he'll gain confidence from tonight and move on.
"Rob Spencer has still got hamstring trouble and he might be another fortnight before he's back. It's really disappointing for us because Rob is one of our key players and to have him missing at this time is very disappointing but the good news is when he comes back it will be like having a new player.
"Jordan Nadat also has been a long time out but he's coming back to form. He's not quite there like Dean Oliver but once those two hit it off there should be a few fireworks up front for us but they still have work to do!"
