Gresley Rovers vs Oldswinford
Gem from Joe as Moatmen hit five – Rex Page – Burton Mail
Frank Northwood cast his net far and wide to come up with a winning formula at the end of an otherwise depressing week for Gresley Rovers.
The Moat Ground boss drafted in Nigel Simms from Burton Albion, Jack Oldershaw from Belper Town and Bilston’s John Branch.
But it was Rovers’ old boy Paul Acklam and enigmatic midfielder Joe Jackson who stole the show.
Jackson, clearly much more at home on a firm surface, mixed aggression with ingenuity and nicely capped it all off with one of the Moat Ground’s goals of the season.
And Acklam, discarded by Gresley a month into the season and lately of Shepshed Charterhouse, answered Northwood’s latest distress signal with a swaggering hat trick.
All this, of course, has to be considered in the light of the opposition. Oldswinford are the worst team in the league by some distance with a goals-against record that resembles a cricket scoreboard.
It was, then, more of an exhibition match rather than one in which the destination of the points would be seriously doubted.
Still, Rovers had to take their chances – and that they did in splendid, occasionally spectacular, style.
Branch struck the first after 25 minutes, turning neatly onto a pass from Simms to deceive goalkeeper John Carmichael with a sharply-angled shot which went in off the inside of the far post.
It was 2-0 in the 35th minute when a fluent move ended with Acklam ruthlessly volleying in Jackson’s telling cross from six yards.
If anything, it was an even more one-sided contest after the interval; the sort that would have been stopped long before the scheduled finish if it had taken place in a boxing ring.
Acklam stretched Gresley’s advantage in the 55th minute when he comfortably knocked in the rebound after Branch had thumped a shot against the legs of Carmichael.
Oldswinford’s ordeal continued ten minutes later. Acklam surged clear to score with a brilliantly executed volley.
And in the 80th minute when Carmichael was left grasping at thin air when Jackson smashed in a right foot shot of awesome power from 20 yards.
Gresley Rovers (2) 5
Oldswinford (0) 0
Scorers: Branch 25, Acklam 35,55,60, Jackson 80.
Gresley Rovers: Aston, Simms, Dick, Oldershaw, Dolby, Page, Jackson, Bromley (Lovell 34), Branch, Acklam, Laws.
Oldswinford: Carmichael, Adams, Wood, Weston, Cooper, Corinaldi, Russon, Brookes, Millichip, Green, Calver. Sub: Frays.
Rovers man-of-the-match: Joe Jackson.
Referee: B Millership (Dosthill).
Attendance: 254
