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Rovers ready and very willing
Story courtesy of
Gresley Rovers head for the hills tomorrow with coach Steve Dolby confident of adding another impressive scalp to his collection.
Rovers have beaten Worksop, Buxton, Gainsborough and, most recently, Matlock in the not-so-distant past and Dolby believes that even the presence of a large and partisan home crowd at Buxton – average gate over 500 this term – will not deflect Gresley from their aim of a second successive Derbyshire Senior Cup win.“It’s going to be difficult for us because they play at a higher level but they’re not as good as Matlock, who we beat in the last round, so I’m confident. The main danger is that the Derbyshire Senior Cup is all they’ve got left to play for so they’ll be going flat out – but we’ll be well prepared.”
Dolby himself is going through something of a painful period at the moment – on crutches.
The former Burton Albion defender who skippered Gresley to some memorable victories in recent seasons has had a series of operations to repair a damaged ankle.
But the injury refuses to mend properly and Dolby must go through the pain barrier again.
“The original injury was to ankle ligaments and they’ve had to be reconstructed. The ankle joint was dislocated and the big problem was trying to get it back into proper alignment. At the moment it’s still not quite right even though I’ve had one major and two minor operations.
“Now I’m in plaster for six weeks and what happens next depends on how the ankle is looking after the plaster comes off.”
It all adds up for a frustrating time for Dolby who has been unable to continue working as a PE teacher at de Ferrers School in Burton – something he misses badly. And the injury has also meant that Gresley and the various school teams he coaches – the Burton and District Schools FA Under-15 side among them – have had to content themselves with words of wisdom only from the experienced defender who once marked Gary Lineker in two FA Cup ties.
Gresley, however, are anxious to ease the pain for their coach – who has seen them lose only once since taking over from Phil Marandola earlier in the season. A Banks’s League and Cup and Derbyshire Senior Cup triple would be just the tonic.
