Note that this page is from our archive during the time when the club was called Gresley FC. It may not be related to the old Gresley Rovers.
Team News
Manager Gary Norton will have an almost fully fit squad to pick from ahead of tomorrow’s scheduled league fixture away at Ibstock United.
Only Tom Betteridge is a concern who currently has a heavy cold and probably will not play. However, the likelihood of the game going ahead is almost nil leaving the manager increasingly concerned about his side’s inactivity over the past four weeks ahead of next weekend’s much anticipated trip to Dawlish Town in the FA Vase.
As a backup to the inevitable postponement of tomorrow’s fixture the club have managed to arranged a behind closed doors friendly at an all-weather facility against local side Stapenhill FC.
Norton commented: “It’s been quite challenging over the last few weeks in terms of keeping the lads fit.
"Our last game was on December 12th and since then like many sides we have also struggled to train properly.
"We usually train up at the National FA Centre on the all weather surface and we managed to get in a friendly last week against our reserve side.
"However, due to the conditions up there we have had to cancel 3 planned sessions in recent weeks as even though the pitch might be playable, the roads and pathways around the centre's pitches and car parks up there are very dangerous and so the FA have taken the safe option to postpone sessions.
"We have managed to get the lads in at fitness first gym and the DW soccer domes over the last couple of weeks to keep them ticking over but it’s quite limited in what we can do with them.
"We have managed to get some decent fitness work in but there’s certainly no substitute for game related action. We’ve been busy trying to find somewhere appropriate that’s both fit and available in order to fix up a game but have not had much luck.
"However, yesterday we found somewhere that should be playable all being well and subject to any unforeseen weather problems overnight we will now have a run out against Stapenhill tomorrow if as expected the Ibstock game goes the way we are expecting.”
He added: “We are desperate for a game to blow a few cobwebs away and hopefully tomorrow we will get that chance. I’m concerned about what effect the layoff might have had on our match fitness ahead of such a big game but in the same respect having not played for a while the lads will be chomping at the bit.
"Dawlish have managed to play league games on Boxing Day and also last Saturday so from that point of view they have the benefit of at least having played a couple of competitive games in the run-up to our game."
