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.
Spalding Pre-Match News
Gresley FC are back on the road tomorrow and travel to Spalding in their latest Evo-Stik Northern Premier East game looking to bounce back from last Saturdays 5-1 trouncing at the hands of a very impressive Morpeth side.
The league leaders gave Gresley a footballing masterclass in Northumberland last weekend and whilst manager Gary Norton was far from despondent after that game knows his team need to bounce back with something from the trip to Spalding. He said: “Morpeth are a quality side and we can have no qualms about the result last week. Having said that we need to be defending a lot better individually and collectively making it much more difficult for teams to score against us. Overall though Morpeth were different class. Whilst getting beat 5 is hard to take at any stage of the season this result was a lot easier to take than the Carlton 5-0 debacle a few weeks back and the lads certainly gave their all. We were just beaten by a much better side on the day.”
Gresley make the trip to Lincolnshire with the worst goals against record in the league and it’s definitely the main area of concern the Gresley Boss. So far this season 29 goals have been conceded " 18 in the last 7 league games averaging almost 2.6 goals per game. Norton added: “We have only kept one clean sheet this season and it shows. In particular, away from home we have let in 22 of the 29 goals conceded against us so far this season and so it’s very clear where our area of opportunity lies. We need to tighten up all over the pitch. Don’t get me wrong, there are only 7 sides in the league who have scored less goals than us too so whilst that’s also a concern we have to be much more solid defensively first and foremost.”
He added: “We have quite a lot of inexperience in the side and at times that shows in the way we defend and it’s something I’m mindful of. Having said that in terms of where we are at the moment as of two weeks ago we had more points on the board than at the New Year point last season and are no-where near the bottom of the league so on that basis we are doing okay comparatively speaking".
In team news Norton continues to be without the services of Player Coach and Captain Jamie Barrett for family reasons but was hopeful Barrett may be able to resume his place in the squad soon. A big plus is that dynamic midfielder Dexter Morris"Clarke has declared himself fit after recovering from a knee injury picked up in September. Jack Livesey’s continued back injury has ruled him out and the club have ended his loan deal early. As a result fellow Burton loanee Oliver Fairbrother will take over between the sticks replacing Ben Allsop in the squad who had impressed Norton well when covering for Livesey in the last couple of games. Winger Cameron Steele is unavailable for the trip for personal reasons.
