Halesowen Harriers vs Gresley Rovers
Bitter end for Rovers – Andy Parker – Burton Mail
A season that one time promised so much but in the end realised very little ended on the sourest of notes for Gresley Rovers last night.
A week earlier Rovers had the double carrot of the Banks’s League Cup and runners-up spot still to play for.
But stripped of more than half a team of first choice players, Gresley will now miss out on the honours and – even more disappointingly – the sponsorship cash that accompanies a place in the league’s top three.
Last night’s result, on paper, may look like a bit of a shocker. But the truth is that Gresley’s impoverished first team did well to keep a footballing Harriers’ side down to just six goals.
In fact Rovers, for whom coach Jeff Bourne made an unexpected and, sadly, totally ineffective return, actually led through Martin Devaney’s 37th minute goal – a crashing shot converted after Nigel Duggins’ free kick had deflected into his path off a defender – but it took Harriers just five minutes to draw level and only a minute longer to take the lead.
After half time the floodgates opened, and even the desperate introduction of half-fit leading scorer Brian Beresford failed to stem the tide.
Rovers had flattered to deceive in the first half, Harriers, content to build meticulously from the back, seemed in no hurry to go anywhere and, incredibly, Gresley had missed two glaring opportunities, through Duggins and Devaney, before taking the lead on 37 minutes.
On reflection, that was the worst thing they could have done. Within five minutes the inexperienced Mark Read was exposed on Gresley’s right flank and Steve Brain tapped home from close range. A minute later full back Adrian Cooper capped a fine solo run by converting another chance.
Harriers had finally realised that by probing Gresley’s right side they had found the Achilles’ heel in the heart of their visitor’s makeshift side and, after the break, the goals began to flow regularly.
Richard Gregg made a good save to foil Paul Waddington after Steve Dolby had, untypically, been caught in possession but the keeper was helpless to prevent Chris Mason running in Harrison’s third within 30 seconds.
Then, with nerves beginning to fray, the stand-in keeper threw straight out to Chris Mason who should have rubbed further salt into Rovers’ wounds but shot over.
It mattered not, for minutes after Beresford had replaced the pedestrian Bourne, three further goals in seven minutes put the seal on Gresley’s most crushing defeat of the season.
Halesowen Harriers (2) 6
Gresley Rovers (1) 1
Scorers: Brain 42, Cooper 43, Mason 48, Waddington 64, David 65, Brassington 77 (Halesowen Harriers): Devaney 37 (Gresley Rovers).
Halesowen Harriers: Clarke, P Williams, Cooper, Field, Tomlinson, Brain, T Hall, Brassington, Waddington, Mason, David. Sub: M Taylor.
Gresley Rovers: Gregg, Reed, K Williams, Duggins, Dolby, Haywood, A Taylor, M Hall, Bourne (Beresford 57), Devaney, G Hall.
Gresley man-of-the-match: Martin Devaney.
Referee: M Ricketts (Telford).
Attendance: 100
