Rushall Olympic vs Gresley Rovers
Rovers Reserves Reverse it at Rushall
Saturday saw the reserves travelling to Rushall to face a mid - table side struggling to find their early-season form.
The game started in a fairly frantic manor with neither side being able to put their foot on the ball, somewhat similar to several games we’ve seen this season.
We didn’t seem to settle too well and always seemed to be focusing stopping Rushall playing as apposed to concentrating on getting our attacking game going. This unfortunately was our undoing in the first half as we seemed incapable of stringing two passes together at times, something which the lads will agree with me on. We we’re trying too hard at times and it felt as if we had two battles o our hands, one with Rushall and one with ourselves.
Needless to say, on 20 minutes gone the Rushall striker produced a moment of individual skill and netted the Rushall opener with a half volley from within the box. It must be said that right through the first half he had been marked extremely well by new boy Chris Morby, fresh up from the Youth side. However, Chris is learning what we expect when we say, “ Get tight “ and produced a fine performance throughout the game.
We were unable to get our game going from front to back but in particular in Mid-filed. We were second to every ball, 10 yards off the pace and playing with a real sense of despair. It was no surprise that at half time, and 1-0 down, the midfield trio of Dunn, Hurr and Smith took a bit of a rocket. All three lads knew they had more to give and knew that it was the middle of the park where this game could be won.
To their credit they came out with a renewed sense of passion and with a little fire in the bellies they set about clamping own on the Rushall centres and making them chase the boys in red for a change.
On 65 minutes, Andy Smith made way for young Jack Ward and Mat Shakespeare limped off to be replaced by Shadi Mullar.
Almost instantly the shape of the game changed and we suddenly seems to have more time and space on the ball. With Ward sitting in the hole behind the front two, he was able to get his head up and pick his passes, which on 70 minutes he did with a weighted pass to Yearsley on the right side of the Rushall back line. At this point their was still a great deal to be done, but as many times this season, Ryan set about his markers with venom and left them standing while he drove through to fire a shot from 18yards straight through the keeper to level things up.
The equaliser spurred on all the lads, Sandar and Morby on the left side were working well together alongside the hard working middle pair. The back line looked solid for most of the game and was controlled well by Paul Grosse in the middle of the three.
A moment of madness by the Rushall keeper when on 75 minutes, he was sent off after hitting Ryan Yearsley’s head after a tight off-side decision stopped Ryan going full-bore for a 50 – 50 ball with the keeper. Clearly feeling pressured, he snapped and lashed out at Ryan and was duly sent off.
On 75 minutes, Bertram made way for the newly signed Moussa Sella, with Bartram having worked hard for his time. This change added another slight change to our shape and a real belief was felt that the game was there for the taking.
Yearsley it was who sealed the win with another moment of individual flare with a strong run and driven shot past the stand-in keeper to put us 1-2.
The last 15 minutes were a little shaky at times but all in all we were good value for the win.
The strong points of this game focus primarily on the introduction of the Youth Team players and their slick introduction into the squad. Their attitude has been refreshing to see and they are all playing with real pride.
It really was a game of two halves, the first we can forget but in the second half we showed maturity in our play and were able to work on doing the simple things right and the right things simply.
