Evo-Stik NPL League Division One South
NetDec Stadium, Northwich
Wednesday, 29th March 2017, 7.45pm
Gresley Denied All Three Points
Gresley will travel back to South Derbyshire knowing they had all three points in their grasp but for two deflected shots within six minutes which handed Northwich a share of the points which they barely deserved.
A few games previous Gresley would have been grateful for a point on the road but this felt distinctly like a defeat after having all three firmly in their grasp with twenty minutes left.
However, the game will not be remembered for the fight back by the hosts but by the 20-man melee on 90 minutes resulting in both sides being handed two red cards unfortunately aggravated by some poor officiating from the referee throughout the game which saw it boil over in the end.
Gresley were decimated by injury and unavailability with Matt Melbourne, Dexter Morris-Clarke, Ryan Walker, Laithan Hammond and Jon Stevenson all out. Tom Manship was replaced on the hour mark after aggravating a head injury, received on Saturday, which needed a trip to hospital.
Manager Damion Beckford-Quailey drafted in Zac Hill from the Reserves and there was a return to the squad by Lucas Harrison.
Vics started brightly forcing Gresley back with the first, half chance came to the home side when a cross from the left was tamely headed goalwards which James Flinders dealt with easily. Then Lingouba Cesaire tried a speculative lob from the left after seeing Flinders off his line but the effort flew well wide of the target.
Gresley at last got into the game and took the lead on 21 minutes when Reece Morris cut in from the right and drilled a low shot past keeper Dylan Forth at the near post.
The game started to be littered by some poor tackles with Yaw Gyimah going into the referee's book followed by Gresley's Alvin Jarvis.
Gresley should have doubled their advantage on 31 minutes when Sam Grouse was put through but with only Forth to beat the youngster could only put his effort over the bar. Minutes later Leandro Browne tested Forth with a low shot which was easy for Forth.
The visitors were pressing and when close again when Morris slipped the ball to Manship on his right but again the chance was spurned with the final shot flying over the bar.
Another very poor tackle from Stuart McDonald resulted in a yellow card with many thinking it warranted a straight red.
The referee's whistle ending the first half was welcome as the game was heating up with the feeling that there was going to be flash point at some stage.
Gresley made a change at half time with Keenan King replacing Sam Grouse and his introduction had an almost immediate impact. On 51 minutes Manship put the ball through to King's feet on the edge of the area and the striker turned his marker before blasting the ball past Forth.
More poor tackles were flying in from both sides with the referee not taking the appropriate action which resulted in tempers being raised by the players.
Vics got back into the game on 76 minutes when Gresley failed to deal with a ball in their own half and eventually McDonald fired the ball towards goal and with the help of a deflection beat Flinders.
The hosts were level 6 minutes later and again a deflection wrong footed Flinders but the initial shot was superbly struck from distance by Matty Clarke.
Gresley came back but again they spurned a chance to regain the lead. Browne was put through in on goal but the final shot was a poor one flying well over the bar.
With time deep into added McDonald reacted violently to a tackle on him in front of the dug outs and within seconds every player was involved in an ugly scene.
After four or five minutes the referee managed to gain some resemblance of control and began to dole out the cards. McDonald appeared to have been shown a straight red followed by Reece Lyndon who also saw a straight red.
It didn't stop there as Alvin Jarvis was shown a second yellow and the resulting red which somewhat bewildered the player. And to top things off the referee, Les Sinclair, evened things up by showing Keenan King a straight red card for reacting to what looked like an attempted headbutt.
With the whole sorry episode taking eight or nine minutes to sort out the referee allowed the free kick, which had started the melee and then blew his whistle to end the game minutes earlier than he should - probably to prevent any further problems.
