Chasetown vs Gresley Rovers
Today's game in the Challenge Bowl First Round was always going to be difficult with Chasetown sitting second in the League but a game I was very much looking forward too as I would be able to see for the first time exactly the quality of the players we had within the reserves. They had done very well in their last two fixtures, but as someone pointed out, the quality of Chasetown could not be questioned.
At training on Thursday night we had our numbers up to 21 players and it was a case of who would be selected. However, by the time Saturday 1.30pm came we had a bare eleven. I won't go into the reasons for this, just to say that the situation will be dealt with and will never happen again.
Responding to my fears of Chasetown, we thought it was a game we would begin tactically very solid defensively, and see our game developed. Keep the clean sheet, be patient, and take your chances when they came. With this in mind we started with a 4-4-1-1 and if things went kindly for us we could push the extra midfield player up into attack to make our usual 4-4-2.
The game kicked off and you could also guess the following outcome. With 88 minutes left to play a second bad tackle comes in and this one puts Rich Draycott out of the game. So down to ten men against a team second in the league. Well if I wanted to see our lads tested, I was certainly going to get my wish.
After about five minutes we changed the formation to try to win as much in the middle of the park as possible. 3-5-1 was now the formation and the lads pulled it off brilliantly. Lewis Gadesby, Joe Miller, and Chris Mawbey were absolutely superb at the back. New signing Suki Haar was awesome in the centre of midfield. Phil Merry and Johnnie Guthrie showed more of what they were about; Andy Harrison and Jak Ward worked so hard at turning defence into attack, as wing backs and Chris Blackshields chased everything going forward all game. James Pemberton's handling, positioning and kicking was first class and two saves were top draw.
Obviously Chasetown had most of the possession, but the Gresley lads played the game perfectly. As soon as we gained possession, we played some neat football to turn our defending into quick attacks. We got to half time with the scores level and our clean sheet intact.
At half time I had an apology to make to our Reserve team. I had not over estimated our opponents; I had under estimated the quality of what we had in our dressing room. With that done, it was all about going out and doing exactly as we already had for another forty five minutes. A difficult enough task but when Chasetown brought on two first team players at the interval it was a task made even harder. Could we deal with it, we could do more than that. It became obvious that one of the substitutions was going to give us problems down the right, we made Mawbey aware of concentrating a lot of his time on this danger which left Miller and Gadesby stretched even more, but all three responded superbly and after about fifteen minutes we felt we were in control.
As the game went on Chasetown began too push for the win, Gresley grew with confidence and you started to feel we would do more than hold out for a draw. We created some good chances and with just a little more fortune in front of goal could and maybe should have taken the lead. Don't get me wrong Chasetown still created chances, but defensively we were very solid and when beaten there was still Pemberton in goal.
There were many good forward runs made, Andy Harrison and Mawbey out of the back and down the wings, Suki Haar must have covered every blade of grass on the pitch, Merry and Guthrie also drove forward out of the midfield. Into the last five minutes and we should probably have pulled the reigns in but you could also feel there maybe was a win to have and I'm sure that is what the lads felt. With about three minutes left an attack broke down, Merry and Harrison were caught forward and the extra man was finally going to take its toll. Chasetown slipped in their forward and as he looked certain to score a brilliant tackle from Mawbey took the ball away from him, unfortunately it sat up perfectly for the extra man who had an easy task of slotting it home. - a really cruel blow.
Soon after the whistle went and the lads heads aimed at the ground. The only thing I was angry about. I immediately told them to lift their heads as high as possible, because today they had achieved the level of pride that playing for Gresley Rovers should be all about. If we had had eleven players on that pitch today I'm sure we would have seen our lads take the victory.
What we had in the dressing room today was something really good to build on and filled both David and I with loads of confidence. If we can continue to bring in a few more quality players to join the lads we saw today and they can all continue to produce these sort of performances then we might just see ourselves able to reach our targets a little bit sooner.
I was bitterly disappointed with the final result of today's game, for the lads mainly, they deserved much more. However, I was more than pleased to arrive home after managing players that can produce these kind performances.
Final score: Chasetown 1 - 0 Gresley Rovers
