Pre-Season Friendly
The Moat Ground, Church Gresley
Saturday, 16th July 2016, 3.00pm
Friendly Defeat For Gresley
Gresley manager Damion Beckford-Quailey suffered his first defeat of the pre-season games going down 4-3 in a competitively played match against Evo-Stik Premier side Mickleover Sports at the Moat Ground.
As seems the norm in these sorts of games at this time of year players go missing due to holidays, injury, work etc and Gresley were missing Courtney Meade, Ryan Walker, Lynas King, Chitaze Tandi, Rob Peet and Jordan Wakelin but there was a familiar face on the bench - Jamie Barrett who had returned from honeymoon yesterday.
Both sides had early chances but it was Gresley who forced Sports keeper Jack Tolley into a save pushing a well struck shot away for a corner.
It was then the turn of the Gresley stopper to be alert as Ben Gough denied Jack Broadhead. A minute later Gough was almost caught out when Brody Litchfield beat him to the ball but his shot was cleared off the line by Jake Carlisle.
The play switched to the other end with a free kick from the right by Michael Pearson was narrowly headed wide of the far post.
Gresley took the lead on 20 minutes with a well worked move thanks largely to Matt Melbourne who made his way into the left of Sports area before slipping the ball back for Eddy Samba to hook into the net.
Ten minutes later Gresley almost doubled their advantage. Pearson Mwanyongo made a fine run down the left and pushed the ball to Melbourne on his inside. Melbourne back heeled the ball to Samba but the final shot was just past the far post.
Gresley again had chances to increase their advantage when they caused chaos in the visitors' box as they could not clear the ball. Finally, Reece Morris fired a low shot which Tolley managed to block.
The first half ended with Sports going close when Litchfield cut in from the left but fired his shot into the side netting.
Mickleover came out for the second half far more determined and levelled six minutes later. Gresley had two or three chances to clear the ball out of their area but it came out to Broadhead who smashed a low shot through the crowded area and past Gough.
Two minutes later Sports took the lead with another gifted goal. This time it was from a free kick on the edge of the area. Gresley's defensive wall was not solid enough and the low struck shot from Andy Dales flew through the gap and left Gough helpless.
Things got even worse as once more Gresley literally handed Sports another goal when Carlisle handled in the area. Danny Scoffield took the resultant spot kick and although Gough chose the right way to dive he couldn't prevent the powerfully struck kick ending up in the back of his net.
Gresley managed to reduce the deficit on 64 minutes from another good move. Substitute Toby Fura played a superb ball from the left into the path of fellow substitute Chris Richard who beat the offside racing through to coolly slot the ball past Tolley.
Once more Gresley were the authors of their own downfall a minute later. For some reason Gough chose to slip the ball out to a team mate who was surrounded by the opposition and the ball came across to Litchfield who accepted the gift belting a low shot into the net.
In all fairness that goal gave a flattering look to the score for the visitors but a chance at the other end should have reduced the gap. An awful slip by Toby Sims allowed Melbourne to stride forward bit with only Tolley to beat the striker fired over the bar.
Fura then warmed Tolley's hand with a low struck shot but in this end to end game Sports substitute Nduoma Chilka had a chance to finish the game when he beat Matt Roome raced forward but sent his shot high over the bar.
Gresley got the final goal of the game two minutes from the end which they fully deserved. Melbourne made a run down the right before cutting into the area and hitting a low shot which beat Tolley and flew into the bottom far corner of the net.
Beckford-Quailey remarked after the game that there were positives to take from it, one being that Mickleover didn't cut through his side but they have got to cut out the personal mistakes which resulted in handing the visitors three goals.
