Gresley FC vs Stratford Town
GRESLEY RESERVES 4 - 3 STRATFORD TOWN RESERVES
On a glorious sunny afternoon at the Moat Ground, Gresley`s Reserves came back from a two goal deficit to defeat Stratford in an entertaining game full of goals and attacking football.
With regular goalkeeper on duty with the first team Adam Hallifax became the stand in and he certainly didn`t let himself or his teammates down. Stratford started the stronger team with Kajkowski and Williams hitting the post and crossbar respectively.
Tobias Williams was proving a thorn for Gresley`s defence and in the 20th minute he slipped through the defence to open the scoring for the visitors. Gresley stand in keeper Hallifax made several good saves but just before half time Kajkowski after earlier hitting the post this time hit the crossbar with Hallifax beaten.
At the start of the second half Rikki Birch and Niall Worrall came on but before they had settled in, Stratford full back Tom Dyke headed in with a Gresley defender unable to keep the ball out of goal to put the visitors two goals up.
This only spurred Gresley on and after 54 minutes Jamie Newbold saw a shot saved but followed up to score.
Nine minutes later a long through ball saw Rikki Birch streak clear and his rasping shot hit the goalkeeper but the pace of the strike saw the ball home to put Gresley level.
Game on thought Gresley but almost immediately a Kajkowski lob saw Williams head home to restore Stratford`s lead. This setback only seemed to inspire Gresley and the team drove forward and after 70 minutes Newbold got his 2nd of the game to make it all square again.
The Moatmen were now in the ascendancy and with just 5 minutes left a great ball by Newbold to Birch saw his shot screw wide of the post but the home team were not to be denied and with just 1 minute of normal time left a shot flew through a posse of players to reach Sam Grice who steered the ball home to scenes of jubilation on both the pitch and terraces to give Gresley the win.
One thing is for sure is that no matter how the opposition are playing this young reserve team has a great team ethic and never say die attitude.
Gresley Team: 1. Adam Hallifax 2.Wayne Harris 3.Brad Metcalf 4.Steve Dennahy (Capt) 5.Ben Harrison 6.Steve Mullett 7.Ben Minshull 8.Sam Grice 9. Harry Bourne 10.Jamie Newbold 11.Jon Lovatt.
Subs: 12. Rikki Birch (46), Adam Stockdale (76), Niall Worrall (46). (not used) Josh Pearson and Will Simpson.
