Match Report  |  Gresley Rovers vs Sutton Coldfield Town

Written by Luke Nurden

Gresley Rovers’ first half masterclass proved to be too much for Sutton Coldfield Town to give Rovers’ their first win in five league games.

First half goals from captain Kieran Wells, Kane Lee and Mason Frizelle gave Gresley the
advantage going into the half.

Wells added his second of the match just after the break, with the strong lead proving too hard for the visitors to come back from, despite two late goals late in the game.

Rovers took an early lead through Wells after the striker latched onto an Abdul Adegbola
mistake to fire home past Jonathan Brown for Wells’ first goal for Gresley and of the season.

The home side’s dominant start continued with Michael Williams almost doubling Gresley’s lead but the long-distance effort went narrowly wide of the top right corner.

Sutton Coldfield found themselves having a spell of possession but a set-piece play whipped in by Bekir Halil found the head of Lee which trickled into the goal to put Gresley two goals up, against the run of play.

The away side had their first glimpse of a chance just before the end of the first-half, after Will Mansfield put a teasing ball into the six-yard-box but Ellis Evans intervened to clear the ball out of danger.

In the dying embers of the first half, Gresley increased their lead to three goals after Alex Morris flicked on a long-throw for Frizelle to head the ball past Brown in a powerful fashion.

Rovers added a fourth just after the break, through Gresley captain, Wells, who bagged his second goal of the game with a perfectly placed header into the bottom right corner delivered by Alby Lawsdowne with a sublime cross.

Sutton Coldfield tried every trick in the book to try and claw their way back into the game, which was shown through James Spruce testing Lewis Fenney from long-range but the effort was easily dealt with by the Rovers goalkeeper.

Fresh substitutions gave the away-side an extra gear to look for a goal back, but strong defending from Gresley left Sutton Coldfield with no answer to start a comeback.

A free-kick from 20 yards by James Spruce almost delivered what the visitors were looking for but the strike flew wide, to the right of Fenney.

Sutton Coldfield’s pressure on the Gresley defence finally came with a play to celebrate from with Ceesay Dampha’s drilled shot flied into the top left corner.

Just four minutes after the first, Sam Ellis smashed home a cutback from Rhys Hilton to get a second for the visitors.

But, it was too little too late for Sutton Coldfield as Gresley’s dominant first half was enough to keep all three points at The Moat Ground.