Rocester vs Gresley Rovers
It’s King Jim – Andy Parker – Burton Mail
Big Jin Arnold, who once broke Burton Albion’s heart with a one-man show of FA Trophy Final defiance, returned from a happy retirement on Saturday to come to the aid of Rocester in their hour of need.
He almost needn’t have bothered. Only once did the former Goodison Park favourite have to show a flash of the old skills that helped him through a long and distinguished league career.
For in a passionately fought battle that marked the historic first encounter between East Staffordshire and South Derbyshire in the Banks’s Premier League game, it was Rovers’ keeper Bob Aston who made the most crucial contributions with two late, great saves that effectively denied the home side victory.
Rovers boss Frank Northwood pointed to four clear scoring chances – three to new striker Paul Acklam – and a late penalty claim denied by referee Biddle – to support his claim that Gresley had created more chances to lift the derby laurels.
Northwood had to accept, though, that the point was a good one. “Not many sides will win here,” he concluded.
Rocester, showing the battling qualities expected by Alan Beaman, had certainly made Rovers work hard for their meagre reward. Said Beaman: “The result was fair enough. We lost our discipline a little in the second half but I’m happy enough with the performance.”
And while he stressed he was not making excuses, Beaman could not ignore the fact that injuries had shorn his side not just of regular keeper Barry Alock but of influential skipper Kev Barry and former Moat Ground striker Micky Collins. That his reshaped side, in which stand-in central defenders Paul Slater and Paul Croft often looked vulnerable but never quite cracked under pressure, had survived was unspoken credit enough.
Yet during the crucial second half period to which Beaman referred that Rovers could and should have put their plucky hosts to the sword. But when livewire winger Kieron Smith went clear onto a misguided Peter Slinn backpass with just Arnold to beat, the veteran keeper stood his ground long enough to force the winger into an ineffectual shot that shot that ended up in the grateful grasp of the Stafford copper’s shovel-like hands.
Steve Astley side-footed another chance wide after a right wing build up and when Acklam was presented with his third free header of the game by an Andy Moore corner he headed over the top.
Acklam had dispensed similar treatment to two opportunities that numbered among the few goalmouth incidents of the first half. Either side of those Seve Anastasi had opportunities to do the business for Rocester but saw a first-minute shot flash inches wide as Gresley stood off him in the area, then flicked on a corner goalwards only for Martin Dick to head off the line.
After the turn Rocester’s competitive edge began to lose its sharpness and with Richard Denby finally escaping the shackles of the hard-working Paul Ede in midfield Gresley began to create more openings, Peter Perry particularly prominent on the right.
Indeed, it seemed that Perry may have won the game for Rovers right at the death when Paul Croft’s challenge sent him tumbling in the area but Rocester received a rapid reprieve from the unconvinced referee.
So it was left to Aston to provide the real heroics of the afternoon.
First he soared to tip Richard Owen’s dipping shot over the bar, then, with two minutes of injury time played, he reached superbly at the foot of the near post as Nigel Mottram raced in to meet Mark Fisher’s left wing cross.
Rocester (0) 0
Gresley Rovers (0) 0
Rocester: Arnold, Slinn, Nixon, Ede, Croft, Slater, Owen, Heath (Carr 73), Mottram, Anastasi (Lowndes 80), Fisher.
Gresley Rovers: Aston, Perry, Dick, Denby, Haskins, Page, Moore, Acklam, Wells, Astley (Norton 60), Smith. Sub not used: Fernihough.
Gresley man-of-the-match: Peter Perry.
Referee: J E Biddle (Solihull).
Attendance: 335
