Gresley Rovers vs Barwell
Gresley Rovers 4 - 1 Barwell Reserves
Scorers: Gough, Hancock, Nicholls, Hollinshead
What a good day for all Gresley Rovers teams. The performance of the reserves against Barwell was great in every sense of the word.
Against a Barwell side with some experienced players and a back 3 of their first XI defence Gresley set about the task of playing possession football from minute 1. We have been working on our passing and movement since the first day of pre season and this is now paying off. Within the first 10 minutes we managed to start playing our passing game, getting into an early high tempo which Barwell struggled to cope with. It was a joy to play in seeing the ball zipping across the turf with all the players wanting to get involved.
Inside a 20 minute spell we found ourselves 3-0 up with goals from Gough, Hancock and Nicholls, and in the last 10 of the half Harley Hollinshead managed to get his head on the end of a cross to make it 4-0.
This half time scoreline rather flattered our opponents as they could not have complained if it had been 6 or 7 at this stage.
The tone was really set around our 'new found' communication skills. Its something that we have been working on in recent weeks as all our lads have great ability but are often shy when it comes to talking to each other on the pitch.
I was really pleased with our second half performance, although not as fluid as the first, it was professional and could have yielded a couple more goals to make the match completely beyond doubt. Its always difficult in those situations when you are 4-0 up at half time as you know the other team are going to have 'their spell' of pressure at some time and we have to recognise that and make sure we are hard to beat. Thats the pleasing thing for us, is that we did recognise that and weathered the storm and were able to close the game out.
The only blot on the copy book was that they got a goal with 5 mins to go. A loose ball was latched onto by their sub and he his a great left foot strike from 30 yds to beat Simon, which I felt he nor the team deserved after a dominant, professional performance.
Id also like to say thanks to all that came to watch as it was an awful South Derbyshire day and I know it might take till wednesday to thaw out, but I can assure you that the team and the management are thankful that you were there to support us.... So thanks!
Team: Baldwin, Hollinshead, Rowntree, Wilson, Tucker (c), Thorley, Nicholls, Dunn, Fell, Hancock, Gough.
