Oadby Town vs Gresley Rovers
Team: 1) Saxby, 2) Miller, 3) Cox(c), 4) Mawbey, 5) Grosse, 6) Smith, 7) Williams, 8) Heer, 9) Rowell, 10) Hall, 11) Blair, 12) Yearsley, 14) Farrell, 15) Whetton.
Gresley travelled to Oadby Town for their first away game of the season. The pre-match preparation was not good at all and could easily affect a team mentally. However, the lads dealt with the situations well and the atmosphere in the dressing room was good.
It was clear from the off that the game would be quite a physical one and that Oadby would use their vocal talents in order to sway decisions. Oadby played a 3-5-2 against Gresley's usual 4-4-2. The opening spell saw Gresley looking dangerous, a fine cross from Blair saw Rowell throw a great dummy and it seemed Hall would tap home. Unfortunately, it threw him too and the chance was gone. The best chance fell to Bair after some fine work from Williams and he should have scored but fired wide. Williams was creating all sorts of problems for Oadby, running in at them from the right. He got by on one particular run and was clean through only to be pulled down. The last defender could and maybe should have walked, but just the free-kick was given.
Oadby caused problems for Gresley through the extra man in midfield. Despite some terrific work from Smith and Heer, elsewhere on the park we struggled to get back and help, this lead to Oadby having some good chances. However, despite some good build up play, the same result usually came from a ball over the top. Grosse and Mawbey dealt with this superbly well. Oadbys best work was when they did get wide and put a cross in. Even so Saxby's presence was filling our side with more and more confidence as he dealt with anything coming in. Oadbys best chance came from one of our attacks breaking down, we were exposed on our right and their extra man got through, fortunately Danny cox headed off the line.
I thought we might just take the lead before half time but Oadby's back three did well. Gresley just couldn't quite find that final killer punch.
Half time was spent mainly discussing the problem our formation was facing against the 3-5-2 of Oadby. We decided to switch to a 4-5-1. Pat Rowell dropped into make the extra midfielder and this allowed Blair and Williams to push on, and so expose gaps between their defensive three. It worked immediately. Rowell's passing found the gaps, Smith and Heer had more time and Oadby looked thrown. A fine pass out to Blair saw a quality cross which Dave Williams headed home. It was exactly how we would have wished it to happen. This lead to a fine period for Gresley that really should have seen us put the game safe. Even Grosse had a scoring chance as he dribbled the ball from his own half into the opponents' penalty area, unfortunately to shoot wide.
Oadby made a change putting on a player behind the front two, but this was just covered by Smith who was doing the holding role anyway. Grosse took a bad elbow to the face from an Oadby player, he was lucky to remain on the pitch, especially as he spent the next ten minutes swinging elbow's at Heer too.
Farrell was brought onto replace Blair and at this point Gresley looked safe and probably tried to run the time down a bit too early. Oadby turned on a good spell, hitting the post with a fine free-kick. As I mentioned earlier it seemed to be a tactic of Oadby to vocally get a decision. I lost count at how many times they shouted handball and it wasn't even close. Still, it paid off. Grosee slid in to tackle and block a shout as the lad fired, the ball hit his elbow as he slid in. The ref gave way and gave them the decision. Oadby fired home the penalty.
So 1-1 with less than ten minutes to go and to be honest I couldn't see how we were going to turn things around. However, unlike last week we had a bit of luck. Their manager switched his formation to a 4-4-2 and was sure this would give him the win. From this moment I felt a weight had been lifted. We moved to a 4-4-2 as well and I just knew our centre midfield pair would be far too good for theirs, and I was right. We piled on the pressure and could have had four easily. It was some great individual work from "Santos" Farrell, though that led to our goal. His pace and skill saw him go past a couple on the left side, he was then fouled and kept on going as the ref waved play on. He beat the last defender and was sure to score except the defender clearly brought him down for a penalty kick.
So with a couple of minutes left who could handle the pressure. Suki Heer stepped up and drove the ball into the bottom left hand corner.
Gresley more than deserved their lead. We made two more changes bringing on Yearsley and Whetton. Sixteen year old Whetton could have scored with almost his first touch. When a defender missed the ball Santos was clear through he fired and it came off the inside of the post, it looked to be certainly in and Whetton just stopped his run for a second. This lead to the ball just being out of his reach and it was cleared. Another fine cross from Williams saw Santos rise and just hit the side netting.
The final whistle went and Gresley got a more than deserved victory. Just as football is, the luck was against us last week and we lost a game we dominated. This week's game was a lot more even, though I still feel on the whole we were the better team, but that little bit of luck needed was on our side. So another very valuable three points.
