Gresley Rovers vs Wednesfield Social
Nightmare! – Rex Page – Burton Mail
The Moat Ground’s midweek curse last night administered another damaging blow to Gresley Rovers’ hopes of clinching the Banks’s League Premier Division title.
For the fifth time this season Gresley became floodlit flops as another valuable point slipped through the net.
Wednesfield, as predicted by Rovers boss Frank Northwood, proved durable opponents, but the Moatmen had only themselves to blame after a sterile performance.
Northwood stormed: “We could have buried them in the first 15 minutes. We couldn’t string two passes together. In fact, we didn’t have a clue.”
Social must have been mildly surprised at how easy they were able to reinforce their reputation as one of the hardest teams in the league to beat.
Gresley began with a flurry of pressure with Dave Morrison heading over from Neil Lovell’s free kick and then failing by a whisker to make contact with a superb cross from Martin Devaney.
Devaney had a left-foot volley parried by Keith Jones, but once Wednesfield had found their feet Gresley found it increasingly difficult to break them down.
Social’s resolve was not tested again until the latter stages of the half. Jones flung himself to his left to push away a firmly struck shot from Steve Dolby, Devaney headed into the arms of the keeper after fastening on to Bob Aston’s huge clearance and Lovell was only inches too high with a beautifully struck left-foot shot from 25 yards.
Rovers became increasingly anxious after the interval as an efficient offside trap and a procession of wayward passes engulfed the game.
Clever work by Devaney twice prompted frantic scrambles in the area, but with Morrison out of touch Gresley were unable to snatch the goal that would have calmed their nerves.
In fact, it was Wednesfield who went close to snatching both points in the closing stages.
Big defender Steve Sandland had a header cleared off the line by Martin Dick and then beat the groping Bob Aston to a corner only to steer the ball over from eight yards.
Gresley Rovers (0) 0
Wednesfield Social(0) 0
Gresley Rovers: Aston, Dick, Bromley, Bottomley, Dolby, Page, Jackson (Arthur 61), Hill, Morrison, Devaney, Lovell.
Wednesfield Social: Jones, Clarke, Bradburn, Hill, Sandland, Dearn, Liggins, Moore, Mason, O’Hara, Simpson. Sub: Norris.
Rovers man-of-the-match: Martin Dick.
Referee: S Millidge (Hinckley).
Attendance: 364
