Glossop North End vs Gresley Rovers
Gresley at the double
Gresley Rovers ensured a Derbyshire Senior Cup semi-final with Ilkeston Town
at the New Manor Ground with a comprehensive win at holders Glossop North End.
John McGinlay had been forced to make changes to his team because of injuries
to key players.
The visitors were soon in their stride and took the lead on 11 minutes. A neatly
worked one-two between Richard Wardle and Andy Bourne was finished expertly
when Wardle hammered the return ball into the bottom corner of the net.
Both Bourne, who narrowly shot wide and Chris Gray, whose shot was saved by
the keeper, had chances to increase Gresley's lead.
On 17 minutes Glossop was on equal terms. A free kick from Danny Wild struck
the top of the unfortunate Ian Bluck's head and sailed past James Lindley and
into the net.
It only took Gresley 10 minutes to regain the lead. There was a horrendous
mix-up in the Glossop defence failing to clear the ball and Matt Moran laid
the ball back to Gray whose cross was headed into an empty net by Barry Woolley.
Lindley was tested on 38 minutes when he had to pull off an instinctive save
from a Danny Wild free kick and again when he saved from Darren Hamilton after
the ball took a wicked deflection off Woolley.
On 47 minutes Gresley thought they had scored again when Chris Parkins had
a perfectly good goal disallowed for off side. The Gresley striker had clearly
run from an on side position to score from a rebound after the Glossop keeper
had failed to hold a shot by Gray.
On 53 minutes Lindley fumbled a corner by Danny Wild that fell to Steve Pearson,
but he blasted his shot well over from 20 yards.
Gresley now began to exert more pressure and another goal looked a certainty.
That pressure paid off on 70 minutes when Bourne's scorcher of a shot was only
parried by Nick Pritchard and Parkins was there to thunder a shot into the roof
of the net from 15 yards.
Six minutes later the game was dead and buried for the home side. Pritchard
picked up a back pass from Barry Cotterill. From the resultant free kick Wardle
passed the ball to Michael Moore who smashed the ball home from 15 yards.
On 86 minutes Glossop could have reduced the margin when Wardle brought down
Paul Nibloe in the penalty area, however, Lindley made a fine save to keep out
Elliott Prest's spot kick.
The manager's view of the match
"I think it was a good win for us. We had a lot of key players missing
and they were the holders of the cup and playing at home.
"The pitch was poor which did not help but the result was just what we
wanted. With Sean Cleary not available as well as Stuart Evans I decided to
play a back three. I dropped back alongside Barry Woolley and Ian Bluck and
Glossop did not really pose a danger. The goals we scored came at the right
times. So now we have Ilkeston to look forward to.
"It is not going to be easy and they will be confident of winning at home."
Glossop North End (1) 1
Gresley Rovers (2) 4
Scorers: Bluck 17 og (Glossop North End): Wardle 11, Woolley 17, Parkins
70, Moore 76 (Gresley Rovers).
Glossop North End: Pritchard, Sutcliffe, D Wild, Wilkinson, Cotterill,
Renshaw (Nibloe 70), Pearson, Dzyra, Hamilton, Prest (Garside 86), N Wild. Sub
not used: Bovis.
Gresley Rovers: Lindley, Peters, Moran, McGinlay, Woolley, Bluck, Bourne
(Westwood 85), Wardle, Moore (Jenkinson 80), Parkins (White 75), Gray.
Rovers
Star Man: Richardle Wardle - Midfield maestro.
Referee: N Smith (Chesterfield).
Attendance: 92
