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Rovers use fan power
Story courtesy of
Gresley Rovers’ travelling army of fans could have a major bearing on the outcome of tomorrow’s FA Vase third round tie at Burnham.
The Buckinghamshire side – currently languishing in the bottom half of the Beazer Homes Southern Division – live in the shadow of GM Vauxhall Conference side Slough and currently average 133 fans for games at The Sports Ground – less than a quarter of the number that normally turn out for Gresley’s home matches.What Burnham lack in support, however, they make up for in bulk, according to Moat boss Steve Dolby, who warned this week: “According to reports, they’re a big side.”
The physical aspects of Rovers’ hosts will therefore be a part of Dolby’s thinking as he prepares for Gresley’s most important game of the season so far.
Dolby certainly threw a cat among the dressing room pigeons at Sutton Coldfield on Wednesday when he made three unforced changes to his side – two of them in the back four – and was rewarded by one of the best performances for several games – and the first clean sheet since October 17th.
But the Moat supremo was at pains to stress afterwards that no-one had been dropped from the team.
“I told the players who were left out they hadn’t been dropped – we just wanted to look at the options available. We kept a clean sheet – which we haven’t done for a long time – and while its not solved all our problems at least we know we now have options available to us. Now we’ll sit down and decide who’s best for Burnham.”
Dolby will have been impressed by the performance of Graeme Rigg, playing as a sweeper on his first team debut, while Scott Elliott made up in pace and sharpness what he lacked in accuracy of distribution.
But the Rovers boss will surely not be leaving the vast experience and commitment of Martin Dick and Gil Land out of a rich permutation of possibilities.
