Doodson Sport Cup First Round
The Moat Ground, Church Gresley
Wednesday, 13th November 2013, 7.45pm
Gresley Spot On
Gresley scraped through to the next round of the Doodson Sport Cup on penalties after the game had finished one-all.
A well taken goal from Jordan Nadat gave the Moatmen a first half lead but a slightly fortunate equaliser almost on the final whistle took the game straight to the lottery of spot kicks as the league cup does not have extra time.
It is well recorded that Eastwood Town has off field problems but that didn't take away the determination they showed on the pitch as they made Gresley fight every inch of the way for their slender victory. The Badgers fielded just two players from the side that faced Gresley in the FA Cup back in September as an exodus of players hit the club hard.
Gresley themselves made changes with Hayden Johns, Marc Strzyzewski, Lucas Harrison, Sam Grice and Alex Steadman all given starting places with Mitch Hanson, Royce Turville, Sam Kirk and Harry Austin all on the bench. John Guy and Mickey Lyons were unavailable die to work commitments and both Jamie Barrett and Eric Graves were given the night off.
On a cold night there was hardly anything to warm the hardy supporters who had ventured out until just after the half hour mark. Badgers' keeper Daniel Dobbie made a poor clearance over on the right of his area and the ball went to Nadat who returned the ball first time from 25 yards over the head of the keeper who was trying to scramble back and into the top corner.
The second half followed a similar pattern to that of the first until the 64th minute when Kieran O'Connell struck a shot which was acrobatically tipped over by Dobbie.
Eastwood's Luke Rowe fired a shot which only just cleared the bar but seconds later Gresley went close to doubling their tally. Nadat played a great ball through the visitors' back line and Steadman latched onto the pass. His first effort was blocked by Dobbie and his second bite of the cherry saw him clatter the post.
Steadman, who by his persistence, had another two chances soon afterwards but Dobbie denied him twice with good blocks.
It looked as if Gresley had done just about enough to win the game but a fluke of a shot meant spot kicks were needed to separate the two sides. Harrison attempted to clear the ball out of the area and it clattered substitute Tyler Witton with the ricochet landing nicely for fellow substitute Josh Schofield who hammered a shot back into the box where it took a huge deflection taking it over the head of the unfortunate Townsend and into the net.
Gresley took the first penalty which was dispatched easily by O'Connell. Henry Sibenge then fired wide for the visitors. The next two for both sides were converted, Langston and Harrison for Gresley; Tony Law and Schofield for the Badgers.
Steadman kept Gresley ahead and it was the unfortunate Rowe who ended the game as he struck the post.
Manager's View
"I'm relieved to get through. I think we dropped our standards tonight. Maybe I made too many changes but it was about giving some people some pitch time which worked because we may have to use them on Saturday.
"I felt we just didn't have any tempo tonight. The only two good things about the game was Jordan Nadat's goal and the penalties which was the only exciting bit about the game to be fair.
"We are not going to lose sleep over tonight. We will take the positives out of the game what they were and take them into Saturday.
"We all know why marc Strzyzewski has been out; he's been out for a month. First game back and he was doing alright and he picked a dead-leg up so there will be a question mark over him on Saturday. He's got to keep putting ice on it every four hours according to Christine our physio and he should be alright but I can't see Strez doing that!
"Royce Turville played for the reserves on Saturday and got about seventy minutes in and it was an opportunity to give him ten minutes to get back into it and I'm sure over the next few weeks he'll be knocking on the door.
"Goalkeeper Ross Etheridge will be out for another three weeks so obviously he will not be playing on Saturday. We are still in negotiations with Derby County but you cannot knock Alex Townsend. He's done really well in the games he's played. You couldn't blame him for the goal he conceded tonight."
