Bromsgrove Rovers vs Gresley Rovers
Simon Van-de-Brouck on the Reserves game against Bromsgrove Rovers
On Saturday we travelled to Bromsgrove Rovers searching for our first victory, unfortunately it wasn’t to be.
However, the manner in which we played was encouraging, although the score line suggests we "got a drubbing". Anyone who was actually at the game would have realised it was our best performance so far this season and we were camped in the Bromsgrove half for long periods of the game.
But alas we didn’t take our chances and they did. At times in the first half I thought that there was helium in the ball as it bobbed about in the air in their box and just wouldn’t drop for our forwards.
The home team took the lead on 22 minutes and added two more within the next 10 to leave us bemused as to how on earth we were three-nil down at half time.
In the second half we changed our shape and went 3-5-2 and I replaced Scott Blainey with John Phillips who took up the position behind the front two. This made us look more dangerous going forward and this seemed to be paying off, but still we couldn’t find the net due to some last ditch defending and excellent goal-keeping, then came the sucker punch we were caught twice on the brake and were five-nil down.
At this point I thought we couldn’t buy a goal then up popped John Phillips with a 30 yarder, straight in the top corner. I knew it would have to be something special to break through the barricade that their keeper had put up all that afternoon.
So 5 - 1, it sounds a lot worse than it actually was, true this was a heavy defeat, but a young team without three of its more experienced players coped well and showed good signs for the future against one of the better sides in the league. So hopefully this performance will be the springboard we need to grab our first 3 points.
