Hinckley Athletic vs Gresley Rovers
Triple trouble - Rex Page - Burton Mail
A troubled week for Gresley Rovers ended at a suitably low ebb when they were unceremoniously heaved out of the FA Vase at Middlefield Lane on Saturday.
Hard on the heels of the controversial sacking of assistant-manager Roger Davies, Rovers' feeble second round performance helped push even deeper into the memory the brilliance of their early season form.
Sadly, Gresley were made to look mediocre by a Hinckley side that at best was distinctly ordinary.
All that was needed was for Rovers to produce white beards to accompany their crimson shirts and suspicions that Christmas has arrived ahead of schedule would have been emphatically confirmed.
There can be no real doubt that a crisis of confidence is about to sweep the Moat Ground after a performance that sent their fans home in utter despair.
How much the Davies affair has influenced matters is hard to determine, but there can be no doubt that the early season spirit and adventure has disappeared.
Gresley failed to recover from a disastrous start in which they presented Hinckley's Steve Scott with two goals in the first 12 minutes and then, for good measure, made an absolute gift of the goal that gave the Athletic striker his hat trick ten minutes after the break.
Gresley could surely have benefited from the height of Davies as Hinckley launched an aerial bombardment that proved decisive.
With only seven minutes gone Paul Purser's long throw from the left flank was headed on at the near post by Paul Lambert, giving the unmarked Scott the chance to ram the ball in from six-yards with a well executed overhead kick.
Hinckley exposed Gresley's Achilles heel again in the 12th minute. Mark Taylor, assisted by an undetected handball, squirmed past Brian Attley and supplied a tantalising cross which Scott, towering above a deceived McNamara, headed in from close range.
Gresley fleetingly hinted at a revival, though there was never any real pattern to their play and a worrying lack of purpose and commitment.
Reg Priest headed a Clive Arthur corner against the top of the bar and Arthur was denied a goal when his searing low drive was hacked off the line by martin Haskins.
In the event, Gresley were simply flattering to deceive and in the 55th minute all hope vanished.
A wretched goal kick by McNamara gave John Allen the chance to head into the path of Scott who strode into the area before beating the despairing Rovers' keeper with a perfectly placed right foot shot.
There was never the remotest chance that Rovers would recover from such dire straights and the decision to send on defender Stuart Watkiss in place of striker Dave Butler made little sense.
Mark Bromley was pushed forward in a belated attempt to prop up an ineffective midfield department, but it was much too little too late.
What few threats Gresley posed came courtesy of Clive Arthur. Twice the winger got around the back of the Hinckley defence, but there were too few bodies in the penalty area to capitalise and he forced the best save of the game out of Lol Chamberlain with a cleverly-flighted free kick.
Those moments apart, Gresley never looked capable of halting a slide in their fortunes that is threatening to destroy the strides forward they made in the opening two months of the season.
If manager Frank Northwood is as ruthless as his handling of Davies suggests, then the time for more changes has arrived.
Watkiss's re-emergence after a lengthy lay-off with an ankle injury should help tighten a defence that is starting to fall apart at the seams.
But there must be changes elsewhere, too, if Rovers are to keep their season alive by sustaining a challenge for honours in the Banks's Brewery West Midlands League.
Hinckley Athletic (2) 3
Gresley Rovers (0) 0
Scorer: Scott 7, 12, 55.
Hinckley Athletic: Chamberlain, Canning. Purser, Wilcox, Haskins (Springthorpe 80), Tedds. Hardy, Lambert, Taylor, Scott, Allen.
Gresley Rovers: McNamara, Attley, Earley, Bromley, Dolby, Thompson, Laws, Butler (Watkiss 65), Beresford, Priest.
Referee: R Fuller (Stafford).
Attendance: 207
