Gresley Rovers vs Blakenall
Spot on, Clive! – Mike StJohn – Burton Mail
Two smartly converted penalties and a canny piece of first half opportunism fron Clive Arthur gave the pacey Gresley Rovers winger his first ever Banks’s Brewery West Midlands League hat trick and presented the Moatmen with their fifth successive league victory at the Moat Ground on Saturday.
Gresley’s 100 percent record remained intact but crisis torn Blakenhall, who were without a point so far this season, made Rovers work doggedly for their victory after the interval following a double sending-off incident on the stroke of half time.
A senseless clash between Gresley central defender Stuart Watkiss and the visitor’s Priest inside the Blakenhall penalty area gave referee Millidge little option but to send both players off.
At that stage Gresley were coasting towards a two goal half time lead, courtesy of Arthur’s goals and their opponents were looking a poor second best.
After the interval, however, Blakenhall rallied through and a sweetly struck goal in the 50th minute from centre forward Malcolm suddenly put a different complexion on the game.
Rovers, who should have put the match beyond Blakenhall’s reach in the first half, never looked like losing but their 2–1 lead always looked a little precarious.
A crude piece of goalkeeping by Kelly, the visitor’s goalkeeper, on Brian Beresford with 11 minutes remaining resulted in Gresley’s third penalty of the game – Berresford himself missed a spot kick in the 15th minute – and gave Arthur the ideal opportunity to secure his hat trick and Gresley’s win, which he happily snapped up.
Gresley were forced to contain Blakenhall’s early promise with Malcom drilling an effort just wide and Dulleston planting a speculative shot onto the roof of the net.
Blakenhall’s fire soon flicked out as the Moatmen surged forward with increasing menace.
The Moatmen almost took the lead in the 9th minute when Arthur’s right wing cross sailed towards the far post where Berrisford nodded the ball down for Dixie Dearns who blazed his short-range drive fractionally over the bar.
Gresley were awarded their first penalty of the game in the 15th minute when Hollinsworth slapped the ball down on the six-yard line following Beresford’s attempt at goal.
Berrisford’s resultant spot kick rolled weakly to Kelly’s left and the goalkeeper made a comfortable diving save to preserve the 0–0 scoreline.
Shortly after Arthur screamed an attempt over the upright, Gresley’s recent acquisition put Rovers into a 22nd minute lead.
A wonderful through ball from Brian Attley – who hardly put a foot wrong all match – travelled a full 45 yards towards Arthur on the right. The Gresley winger made ground and in noticing Kelly had strayed off his line chipped over the goalkeeper with awe-inspiring precision.
Berrisford, who was involved in all three Gresley penalties was adjudged to have been fouled in the area by Glencourse and with an earlier miss still fresh in everyone’s mind Arthur stepped up to take the spot kick.
Arthur made no mistake by driving the ball between Kelly and the left post to put Gresley into a two-goal lead after 34 minutes.
Harding had his name taken for a wild challenge on the ubiquitous Arthur in the 40th minute, and then came the sending off incident three minutes later.
Both Priest and Watkiss flared up following a free kick decision in the Gresley penalty area which was awarded Rover’ way in the first place. Priest went to kick Watkiss and in the heat of the moment the Gresley player shoved his opponent to the ground in direct view of both linesman and referee.
The second half was relatively quiet apart from the booking of Hollingsworth with four minutes to go, and Gresley had to remain patient after Malcolm’s finely struck goal in the 50th minute gave Blakenhall a fighting chance.
Both Attley and Arthur went close to scoring what seemed to be an elusive third goal for Gresley and then the opening came when Arthur cracked the ball home from the spot to assure Rovers with their ten points out of ten.
Gresley Rovers (2) 3
Blakenhall (0) 1
Scorers: Arthur 22, 34 (p),79 (p) Gresley: Malcolm 50 Blakenhall
Gresley Rovers: McNamara, Attley, Earley, Bromley, Davies, Watkiss, Arthur, Dearn, Staley (Butler 53), Berrisford, Dolby,
Blakenhall: Kelly, Banks, Glencourse, Harding, Hollingsworth, Edwards, Langford (Rallie 64), Dulleston, Malcolm, Thomas, Priest.
Referee: S Millidge (Hinckley).
