Match Report  |  Market Drayton Town vs Gresley FC

'A game of two halves' is a much overused clique by many reports but in this instance it can be fully justified as Gresley dominated the first half with Market Drayton Town having the better of the second.

However, the big difference between the two halves was that Gresley, despite having four attempts on goal, could not convert any of them while their hosts had three and scored with everyone of them.

Gresley manager Gary Ricketts could not fill the subs bench again with matter made worse by the news that Kallum Keane and Richard Bailey had joined Carlton Town and Bardon Hill respectively to find regular football.

Ricketts did have Martin Smyth back after the midfielder had overcome his hamstring injury which had kept him out of the Stocksbridge game. He also had Jean Dakouri, who had not featured since the middle of December, in the side. New signing Danny Booth was also available.

The visitors started brightly kicking up the slope on a very soft surface but they were almost caught out when home keeper Ashley Rawlins launched a huge punt down the slope which was helped by the stiff breeze.

Jake Carlisle normally would have dealt with the long ball but it took one bounce and flew over the defence and Craig Ryan was quick to take advantage but with only Gresley keeper Rob Peet to beat skewed his effort wide of the post.

Gresley were soon warming the hands of home keeper Ashley Rawlins with Jordan Ball hitting a dipping volley which the keeper did well to hold onto. A few minutes later Liam Holt tried his hand hitting a well struck shot which flew over the bar.

The visitors' best chance so far came when John Guy slipped the ball through to Jordan Ball who then run in on goal only to fire his shot wide of the far post.

Gresley went close again just five minutes later. Some good play between Jack Langston and Guy ended with the ball laid back to Holt who seeing Rawlins well off his line, tried a lob which just cleared the bar.

Just after the half hour mark Gresley should have taken the lead. A long high ball into Town's danger area saw Rawlins come dashing out of his area but was beaten to the ball by Guy who headed it over the keeper but he was unbalanced for his shot and it went over the bar, another chance gone.

A power failure saw the rest of the game played in the gloom as only two of the four floodlight columns were working. Gresley also had to contend with the considerable slope taking any long ball rushing away for a goal kick.

Town looked a different side in the second half and seemed to know how to play up the slope and within a few minutes of the restart they took the lead.

The home side were awarded a free kick just outside Gresley's area taken by James O'Neil. He struck the ball beautifully over the wall and beats Peet to his right. A disappointing goal to concede but credit to O'Neil.

Gresley had a good shout for a penalty when Ryan King got the better of his marker in the area only to be hacked down after he'd played the ball back into the box but referee, Joe Clark, either missed it or ignored it!

The best goal of the game came on 70 minutes. Simon Everall made a good run down the left and slipped the ball to Ryan who turned his maker and hit a low shot on the turn into the bottom far corner of the net.

That goal, disappointingly, seemed to knock the stuffing out of the visitors not helped by a of lack of match practice with this period of stop-start games and a few heads dropped.

Gresley were finding it hard to get behind a resolute home defence with passes going astray and shots being blocked and Town added to their misery by adding a third goal with seven minutes remaining.

A corner from the right by Michael O'Reilly was not cleared sufficiently and the ball was put back into the area where Jeff Watkins was waiting to head home from close in.