Northern Premier League Midlands
The Moat Ground
Monday, 26th December 2022, 3.00pm
Dynamo Dimmed by Rampant Rovers
In front of the biggest home league game of the season, Rovers faced near neighbours Shepshed Dynamo for the first time in a competitive encounter since March 2009 and it didn’t disappoint.
Rovers welcomed back keeper Lewis Fenney and Keiran Wells who had missed the last two games due to injury.
On a challenging surface the game started brightly for the visitors when an unfortunate slip in defence gave Zayn Hakeem the first clear chance but, and with only Fenney to beat, could only put his low shot wide of the post on 6 minutes.
The near miss sprung Rovers into action and the went close themselves minutes later with James Spruce’s shot just clearing the bar and following a good move between Spruce and Danny Munday the later also firing just over.
Rovers took the lead on 20 minutes. Alex Morris made a good run into the left of the Shepshed area before unleashing an unstoppable shot into the roof of the net with visiting keeper Brandon Ganley left helpless.
With the break looming, Dynamo went close to levelling when a header from Hakeem looking odds on to find the top corner but was denied by Fenney diving to his right to push the ball away for a corner.
Rovers doubled their advantage on the stroke of halftime. Dynamo skipper, Jake Betts, handled the ball just inside the area giving referee Brandon Scaife an easy decision pointing to the spot and handing out a yellow card for the infringement. Kane Lee claimed the ball and coolly smashed the ball home.
The home side made a change at the break with Michael Williams replacing the injured Lewis Belgrave and went close to increasing their tally with Alby Lansdowne heading Spruce’s free kick from the right narrowly wide of the far post.
Another change for Rovers came just before the hour mark with Levi Reid replacing Bakir Halil but it didn’t prevent both sides from serving up a decent game for the supporters.
On 71 minutes both sides made changes with Chris Camwell replacing Wells and for the visitors Shaun Ruzvidzo and Massiah McDonald replacing John King and James Seddon respectively.
Three minutes later Cameron Moore went close for Dynamo with a shot from distance flying past the post. Dynamo made their final change bringing on Hashim Bakar.
Fenney kept his clean sheet intact preventing Ruzvidzo from closing the gap by making another fine save while at the other end Munday warmed the palms of Ganley with a stinging shot. The Gresley keeper again made a fine save to cap a great performance from him and the rest of his teammates. Lee was handed a yellow card in injury time for a tackle deemed by the referee as a foul.
