GKN Sankey vs Gresley Rovers
Spot of joy for Rovers – Mike StJohn – Burton Mail
History repeated itself at the GKN Stadium on Saturday when, for the second successive season, Gresley Rovers claimed maximum points with a single goal victory courtesy of the penalty spot.
Last season Brian Beresford stole the points with an injury time penalty.
And on this occasion John Laws gave Rovers the victory that preserved their 100 percent League record – and put them on top of the Banks’s Brewery League table – with his 68th minute goal.
GKN provided stiff opposition indeed and in a tough, disjointed and often ordinary battle Rovers task was never an easy one.
The almost bare GKN Stadium – just 65 paying fans saw this dour, cheerless affair – did not do anything to enhance the situation as the teams locked their horns.
Gresley centre forward Paul Acklam punctuated the first half tedium with two blinding shots, but GKN’s young goalkeeper Glyn Preece proved to equal to the efforts, making two quite breathtaking saves.
GKN’s industrious and aptly named Martin Sankey got in a header at the far post to cause Gresley a moments panic early on in the game but the game hardly set the pulses racing.
Rovers goalkeeper Karl Austin was rarely troubled but the virtually redundant keeper responded well when called on to pull down a fierce Mark Rogers shot on the turn.
After Preece’s heroics Steve Dolby picked up his second booking in as many games when he stopped a goal bound Mark Comerford in his tracks.
A foul it certainly was but it hardly warranted a booking.
The game awoke from its slumber and both goalkeepers had to make impressive saves after the action-starved opening half hour.
Preece turned a Laws effort onto the base of the right post after Martin Devaney’s free kick had been knocked across the penalty area by Acklam. Then it was Austin’s turn, acrobatically pulling down a Steve Warrilow free kick.
There was an element of luck when the Gresley goalkeeper rushed out of his area to intercept Bob MaCauley’s through ball to Warrilow. Austin’s clearance was mis-hit, but he recovered well to dash back and pounce on the loose ball at the GKN player’s feet.
After the break Gresley played with more venom and after forcing a series of corners Joe Jackson drove the ball wide.
Neil Lovell really ought to have broken the deadlock when Sankey misjudged Martin Dick’s airbourne cross from the left, but the Rovers player fluffed his chance.
Then came the all important penalty award. Martin Devaney made rapid progress from the halfway line to shrug off a series of ineffective Sankey challenges. The Gresley number ten worked his way into the box only to be clumsily grounded by central defender Kevin Roberts.
Laws waited an agonising three minutes while injured GKN sweeper Kevin Moore received treatment from the trainer, and his spot kick was firmly dispatched into the left corner.
As GKN mounted a late challenge, Rovers midfield man Steve French cleared Mark Rogers’ shot off the line and, in a last ditch raid, Sankey sliced the ball wide of an unguarded net following a swift GKN raid up the left involving MaCauley and Warrilow. For Gresley it was a close thing.
GKN Sankey (0) 0
Gresley Rovers (0) 1
Scorer: Laws (pen) 68.
GKN Sankey: Preece, Norris, Mackenzie, Moore (Walmsey 76), Roberts, Vaughan, Sankey, McCauley, Warrilow, Rogers, Comerford.
Gresley Rovers: Austin, Dick, Bromley, Lovell, Dolby, French, Jackson, Laws, Acklam, Devaney, Payne: Sub Skeemer.
Gresley man-of-the-match: Mark Bromley.
Referee: M J Penn (Kingswinford).
Attendance: 65
