Match Photos
Gresley Rovers vs Taunton Town
For the second time Gresley Rovers let a useful lead evaporate but this time it led to a defeat.
On Boxing Day, Gresley were full of Christmas generosity as they let Shepshed off the hook and gifted them a share in the points after being 3 goals up.
On Saturday, Gresley had again gone into a 2 goal lead and looked as if it was going to be a comfortable victory but some shambolic defending let Taunton steal all the points.
The home side had all of the play for the first 40 minutes as Taunton were ran ragged and a big score looked on the cards when after just 8 minutes Jamie Barrett opened the Gresley’s account.
Gresley were awarded a corner that was swung in by Gary White. Taunton cleared only as far as Gresley defender Jim Parkinson who returned the ball back into the danger area. Taunton keeper Ryan Draper looked to have had the ball covered but then fumbled and Barrett was there to ram the ball home.
Things should have been much worse just four minutes later when Dale Peckham clearly punched the ball out for a corner but the referee indicated amazingly that the ball had come off the back of the defenders head! From the resulting corner Stuart Evans could not quite get his header on target and put the ball over.
Taunton’s first chance of any note came on 17 minutes. Andrew Lynch’s cross/shot flashed across the face of Gresley’s empty goal and Derek Fields almost got on the end of it.
Andy Bourne had half a chance on 18 minutes but his header from White’s free kick went well wide.
Taunton went close again on 21 minutes. Gresley keeper James Lindley could only punch a ball clear that was smashed back and looked every bit goal bound until a Gresley defender managed to deflect it away.
On 26 minutes Gresley went two up with the goal of the game. Mark Peters collected a through ball from Barrett and he skipped by Grantley Dicks and beat the keeper’s dive with a superb shot low into the corner of the net.
Two minutes later Bourne went close again putting the ball narrowly wide from a White free kick.
Just as Gresley looked very comfortable they shot themselves in the foot. Danny Harris played a ball through to Lynch who beat the flat footed Gresley defence and easily beat Lindley.
The home side continued to push forward and chances fell to Bourne and Evans but could not find the net.
After the break the Taunton manager played a master stroke replacing Winstone with Peter Sheppard and Gresley just did not have an answer it.
Within minutes of the restart Taunton was making Lindley work as he blocked a shot with his legs.
On 52 minutes Barrett threaded a fine ball that was inches away from Carl Timms. Two minute later Bourne hit a vicious shot through a crowd of defenders and the ball was blocked.
Five minutes later a piece of poor defending handed the visitors an equaliser. Instead of clearing the ball away to safety Parkinson chose to head the ball back to his keeper but the header fell well short and Gary Fisher could not believe his good fortune and made no mistake as he put the ball by a helpless Lindley.
Gresley came close to restoring their lead on 62 minutes when Peters hit a superb free kick over the wall and was very unlucky to see the ball come back off an upright, hit the bemused Taunton keeper and away to safety.
A second piece of poor defending handed Taunton all three points on 65 minutes. A ball that should have been easily cleared fell to Sheppard about 20 yards out. He had time to measure his lob precisely giving Lindley no chance.
Substitute Chris Gray tried to get his side on terms and his cross from the right on 67 minutes was just too high for Bourne and a minute later Gray was involved again. This time he played Bourne in with a fine pass but the keeper was quick to react and beat him to the ball.
Gresley manager Jon Newsome brought on Neil Kitching and Craig Hopkins for Bourne and Peters to try and salvage a point they deserved and it almost paid off.
Two minutes after taking the field Kitching failed by a mere whisker to turn Gray’s cross into the net and on 81 minutes a snap shot by Hopkins went wide.
The home side continued to press and Gray went close on 83 after Kitching’s flick had reached him.
On 91 White sent in a cross that Barrett connected with but a Taunton defender blocked the shot and the ball almost ended up in the net.
Well into injury time an Evans header went over the bar and with it all hopes of at least a share in the points.
The manager's view
"I thought for the first 30 or 40 minutes we completely dominated but I felt we let them back into the game with a piece of sloppy defending for their first goal which smacked of a lack of concentration.
"They changed things. They stuck a man in the hole which is what we do and for 40 minutes we didn't know how to play against them. You are asking players to do a job and apart from physically going on there and playing the game yourself there is not much you can do.
"The players have got to gave a little bit of nouse to know how to react to things and I don't think we did it today. We let them in with the second goal. It's bad enough if you let in a goal like that once in a season, but when you concede one every two weeks or even one every week it becomes a little bit of a joke.
"It's gone beyond a joke now and I'm not happy about it. Their third goal came from a long ball. We won the first ball and their lad did ever so well to finish it but we had no one within 10 yards of him to pick the second ball up.
"We threw it away today. We created the most chances but we've been saying for weeks that we have defensive lapses and I get fed up of saying it. What does me is that defensively we did ever so well last week but we've been an undone today all that good work.
"Things are difficult. I would like to bring in some different players but we can't do that because we haven't got the finances to do that. I know we are short of players in a few areas but sometimes you have to deal with what you've got and that's what I've got to do.
"I've given the chance to some of the youngsters and they've done well. I thought Carl Timms did well today but I thought I'd bring Chris Gray on and change it around. Carl didn't come off because he was playing badly he came of because I wanted to stick on see if he could change it around.
"I thought Matt Moran did well again but some of the other did not do so well.
"I've just said to them in the dressing room that if they play like that next week it won't really be a challenge for Bromsgrove. But, if we play like we did in the first half hour then we will give them a real tough test. It just depends who is going to turn up and how long we want to play each half for.
"But, to give Taunton credit, they changed their game around a bit and it won them the game in the end.
Gresley Rovers (2) 2
Taunton Town (1) 3
Scorers: Barrett 8, Peters 26 (Gresley Rovers); Lynch 36, Fisher 57, Sheppard 65 (Taunton Town).
Gresley Rovers: Lindley, Moran, White, Parkinson, Evans, Cheetham, Peters (Hopkins 72), Wardle, Bourne (Kitching
72), Barrett, Timms (Gray 64). Subs not used: Newsome, Sheils (gk).
Taunton Town: Draper, Dicks, Harris, Peckham, Russell, Kelly, Fields, Fisher (Bastow 73), Winstone (Sheppard 45), Myers, Lynch. Subs not used: Herrera, Maclean, Musker.
Rovers Star Man: Mark Peters – best game for a while.
Referee: A Denniff (Sheffield).
Attendance: 371
