Chasetown vs Gresley Rovers
The Reserves made it two out of two as they ground out a hard earned victory against a very good Chasetown side. Changes from Saturdays victory against Bedworth included 1st teamer Mark Peters made a start in a bid to improve his match fitness. Dave Roberts, brother of Goalkeeper Ian made his debut in place of the injured Gareth Langford and Danny Lonergan came in at full back for the also injured Gary Norton.
Chasetown had the edge in the 1st half and Rovers did well to go in at the break at 0-0. Nathan Tate made an excellent clearance of the line in the 27th minute as Chasetown pressed to make Gresley play for sloppy defending. Brad Clarke made a couple of good saves in the Rovers goal and ensured that they went in level at the break.
Rovers came out in the second half looking a completely different side. They should have taken the lead on 51 minutes when Mark Peters was blatantly fouled in the box for what seemed like a certain penalty but the referee waved play on and Chasetown scrambled the ball away for a corner.
Nathan Tate had a free kick tipped round the post on 62 minutes and Paul Grosse almost broke the deadlock on 72 when a well rehearsed corner saw his far post header cleared off the line.
Two minutes later Earl Alexanders mazy run saw him beat 4 defenders before unleashing a 20 yard effort that was tipped over by Mark Lane in the Chasetown goal. Tate was again unlucky with a free kick, this time crashing his effort against the Chasetown bar in the 81st minute.
Chasetown's defence was creaking now and Rovers took a deserved lead in the 82nd minute when another corner routine saw Carl Timms swoop from close range to steer the ball into the net. Rovers defended well for the remainder of the game to keep a second clean sheet and hold onto the 3 points.
Chasetown Reserves (0) 0
Rovers Reserves (0) 1
1. Brad Clarke
2. Danny Lonergan
3. Nathan Tate
4. Paul Grosse (C)
5. Dave Roberts
6. Mark Peters
7. Matt Moran
8. Carl Timms (82 mins)
9. John Jenkinson
10. Micky Sandar
11. Earl Alexander
12. Danny Tyres
14. Matt Brown
15. John Smith
