Walsall Wood vs Gresley FC
Walsall Wood 2 - 3 Gresley FC
Gresley Reserves gained their first league win yesterday with a dramatic 3-2 away win at Walsall Wood.
Changes were made to the Gresley line up after last week's home Challenge Trophy win over the same opponents, Max Atkin returned in goal and Zack Hill, Connor Ward and Zaki Evans all came back into the midfield.
In bitter conditions Gresley fell behind early on as the home side took a long throw and it flicked on to the unmarked Barry Healey who free to flick the ball past the helpless Atkin.
Gresley playing into a strong wind eventually started to get the ball down to play and created a few chances, two good ones fell to top scorer Josh Dutton, the first he raced on to dink the ball over the advancing keeper but was ruled offside anyway the excellent Joseph Wilcox had cleared off the line. The second chance Dutton normally puts away with his eyes shut, from just inside the penalty box he worked onto to his right side and flashed a quick shot but unfortunately on this occasion it went the wrong side of the post.
The second half started in frantic fashion when Walsall Wood almost scored instantly but Atkin made a decent save, within seconds Harry Lansdowne broke down the right side and put a cross in that was deflected away from the keeper and Connor Ward stole in at the back post to nod home.
Walsall Wood retook the lead in the 64th when a swirling corner caught out Max Atkin and was headed home from close range.
Gresley again were chasing the game and threw on subs Joe Bale and Sam Hammerton within minutes of falling behind. In the 76th minute they were level again, when Sam Hammerton who gave the home defence a different problem to to the that they had dealt with so far in the game, got hold of the ball and lobbed a ball over for Josh Dutton who this time found the net when he dinked the ball over the advancing 'Wood' keeper.
Gresley's winner came in the 88th minute, only minutes after a similar one had been ruled out for a foul on the keeper after Sam Hammerton had headed in, but this time Harry Lansdowne's long throw from the left was flapped at by the home keeper and the loose ball was stabbed across the empty goal for Zaki Evans to force home.
Gresley saw out the remaining minutes to grab their first maximum haul of points in the league this season.
*That's ten games played this season in all competitions for the Reserves this season and our record is as follows
P-10 W-6 D-2 L-2 F-24 A-14
Gresley:
1. Max Atkin (C)
2. Ryan Clemson
3. Callum Porter
4. Zack Hill
5. James Hemingway
6. Josh Garland
7. Connor Ward
8. Ryan Rutland-Jones
9. Josh Dutton
10. Zaki Evans
11. Harry Lansdowne
Subs:
12. Joe Bale (Used)
14. Corrie Caswell (Not Used)
15. Sam Hammerton (Used)
