Evo-Stik South
The Moat Ground, Church Gresley
Tuesday, 27th March 2018, 7.45pm
Bassett Late Strike Makes A Point
If you are going to earn a late point in any game Ollie Bassett’s goal was the way to do it with a stunning strike from 25 yards into the top near corner.
With games coming thick and fast Gresley manager Damian Beckford-Quailey made changes to the side which started against Sheffield on Saturday.
With Mark Branch unavailable due to work commitments Josh Egginton came back into the left back slot. Tom Manship and Pearson Mwanyongo were replaced by Sean Phillips and Shawn Richards with the former pair taking a seat on the bench.
Gresley started the first half in a similar vein as they played on Saturday with misplaced passes giving the visitors far too much time and space on the ball which played into the hands of the rapid Rod Orlando-Young, a very recent signing from Sheffield, who was soon putting the Gresley defence under pressure.
On 14 minutes Gresley somehow managed to keep out a point-blank powerful header from close in after Ricky Bridge had swung in an inviting corner.
Town went close again just before the half hour when Gresley keeper Callum Hawkins was quickly off his line to make a fine block to deny Aaron Bott who had raced into the area. Minutes later the lively Orlando-Young made a run down the left but fired his shot into the side netting.
The only attempt on Town’s goal came on 37 minutes when a cross by Matt Roome was headed wide by Richards.
Somehow Gresley managed to hang on and went into the break on level terms.
Gresley were caught out two minutes into the second half when a long ball was launched forward for Bott to run on to. He managed to shrug off the attention of Roome before slotting the ball past Hawkins.
Instead of Gresley losing heart as they appeared to do on Saturday, they at last began to take the game to Town who in turn started to hand out some dubious tackles.
Just after the hour Alvin Jarvis had to be replaced suffering from a slight Achilles injury by Mwanyongo.
Bassett sent over a long cross from the right to Richards in a good area but the final shot blazed high over the bar.
Matt Melbourne was next to try for Gresley turning well on the edge of the area but he too fired his shot over the bar.
In a bit of a gamble, Reece Morris, who was not totally fit, replaced the tiring Phillips to cause the Town defence some problems and as usual he was the target for some iffy tackles.
On 81 minutes Gresley had a great shout for a penalty when a visiting defender seemed to handle the ball as he lay on the floor but referee waved away the appeals.
A second shout for a penalty came when Bassett appeared to be clattered deep inside Town’s area but again the referee saw nothing in the tackle.
However, Bassett had the last laugh when deep into time added on he got on the end of a long kick by Hawkins and hit an unstoppable shot past the despairing dive of Town keeper Raajan Gill from 25 yards to grab a deserved share of the points based on their much improved second half performance.
