Gresley Rovers vs Chasetown
Rocky Rovers Roasted - Mike StJohn - Burton Mail
Gresley Rovers might have bagged two more points in their quest for Banks's Brewery League honours, making the majority of fans happy, but coach Phil Marandola was left seething afterwards.
"OK, so we won, but we were so disorganised in the second half it was unbelievable. If we are going to win the league we've got to bury sides like Chasetown by at least three goals - we just sat back on our one goal lead," he said.
The Gresley team felt the full wrath as an annoyed Marandola lashed out his grievances in the dressing room immediately after the game. To be fair to the visitors, though, they were not that bad. Certainly Rovers should have had more than the one goal to show for at the end of a one-sided first half, but Gresley led a charmed life as the visitors staged a late second-half rally to very nearly grab a point.
And if this wasn't a five-star performance by Rovers at least the goal when it arrived on 20 minutes was as good as you will see at the Moat Ground this, or any other season.
Martin Devaney, who buzzed around all afternoon scored the all-important goal with a tremendous diving header. A lot of credit should go to Dave Morrison who skilfully headed the ball over a flat-footed Norman Coterill just inside the Chasetown half.
Morrison hared down the right to lay on the cross and Devaney, having escaped the attention of the Chasetown rearguard, thundered in to bullet his header past Dave Weale from six yards.
Only a mammoth slice of good fortune on Chasetown's part and a miserable spell of bad luck for Gresley prevented further gains.
Three times Rovers went close and on each occasion Devaney was in the thick of things. Only a brilliant last-ditch tackle from Simon Hyden stopped Devaney firing into an empty net. The Gresley player then had a goal bound header swept of the line during a hectic scramble and, to cap it all, Devaney hurried a shot over the bar when well placed.
The first glimpse of Chasetown's fighting spirit was in evidence shortly after the interval when Martin Richards caused a flutter in the Gresley penalty area before shooting wide and in another promising raid Les Tonks swivelled on the spot to fire marginally over.
Gresley came out of their slumber momentarily and it was that man Devaney who so nearly scored a much-needed second goal.
A mistake by Hyden was almost punished by the Gresley forward but when he let fly from a full 25 yards the ball took a late bounce at the foot of a fully-stretched Weale's left-hand post to spin clear.
Chasetown refused to buckle and as Gresley began to sit back on their fragile advantage, they were so nearly caned for doing so.
If Mark Bromley hadn't have been in the right place at the right time, making a vital goal line clearance from Ward, then Gresley would have been on the verge of dropping another point. Then Martin Dick had to prod the ball away from an unguarded net after a Joe Jackson error had caused further confusion.
Gresley had their moments too and Weale had to be in tip-top form to deny Devaney and Morrison in the last ten minutes.
Gresley Rovers (1) 1
Chasetown (0) 0
Scorer: Devaney 20.
Gresley Rovers: Aston, Dick, Bromley, Bottomley, Dolby, Page, Jackson, Stevens, Morrison, Devaney, Hill (Laws 63).
Chasetown: Weale, Cox, Jones, Cotterill, Hyden, Rose, Tipson, Richards, Ward, Tonks, Rogers. Sub: Leake.
Rovers man-of-the-match: Martin Devaney.
Referee: K S Dunne (Atherstone).
Attendance: 263
