Gresley Rovers vs Tividale
Gresley late for goal the goal feast – Rex Page – Burton Mail
If the scoreline suggests a close encounter at the Moat Ground – forget it.
For punch-drunk Tividale were lucky not to be sent packing back to Packwood Road on the wrong end of a cricket score as Gresley Rovers roared to their third Banks’s League win in eight days.
How the Black Country side escaped so lightly was a mystery that Agatha Christie would have been hard-pressed to unravel.
True, Gresley made life hard for themselves in a first half of fluctuating form and fortunes, but after the interval rampant Rovers were at their irresistible best as their intelligent running slick passing tore the Dale defence to ribbons.
The winning margin ought to have been five or six; perhaps even seven or eight. Astonishingly, though, Rovers finally only squeezed home courtesy of Kieron Smith’s eighth goal of the season in the 75th minute.
Gresley made a blistering start and deservedly went ahead in the 14th minute. Keith Hill’s neat footwork paved the way for Peter Perry to drive in a low cross which caught Tividale’s defence napping, but not Ian Wells, who popped up at the far post to walk in his first goal in Rovers’ colours.
That ought have opened the floodgates. Instead a moment of madness from John Bottomley allowed Dale back into the game in the 21st minute.
Steve Guest’s spurt into the area was taking him away from goal when Bottomley impetuously sliced him down, allowing Steve Kettle to level the scores from the inevitable penalty award.
A diving header by Keith Harrison all- but turned Dale’s second attack into their second goal and Rovers further lost their way when newly-acquired defender Martin Haskins was carried off with an ankle injury in the 29th minute.
But it was a different story after the interval as Gresley moved smoothly into overdrive, their attack now reinforced by Paul Acklam.
Smith fired against a post after resourceful Neil Lovell had unhinged the visitors’ defence and as shots rained on the Dale goal in torrents the masterful Richard Denby was twice denied by fingertip saves.
Acklam had a goalbound shot blocked by an outstretched foot but, just as Gresley fans were starting to fret, Smith escaped the attention of a tiring defence to meet a cross from Dean Page and power home a eight-yard header off the underside of the bar.
Gresley turned the screw even tighter after that, Martin Dick smashing a 25 yard shot against the bar – many fans claiming the ball had crossed the line before it was swept clear – and Acklam hurriedly shot over with the goal gaping at him.
Gresley Rovers (1) 2
Tividale (1) 1
Scorers: Wells 14, Smith 75 (Gresley Rovers); Kettle (pen) 21 (Tividale).
Gresley Rovers: Aston, Bottomley, Dick, Denby, Haskins (Lovell 33), Page, Moore, Hill (Acklam 52), Wells, Perry, Smith.
Gresley man-of-the-match: Richard Denby.
Referee: S Watkiss (Wolverhampton).
Attendance: 272
