Alvechurch vs Gresley Rovers
Going to Alvechurch as underdogs gave us the edge, playing to our strengths and hitting forcefully on the break with the pacey Alex bolt up front. Unfortunately early on in the game saw the linesman far slower than Alex and flagging him offside on numerous occasions when he had timed his run to perfection. More fortunately for us when Alex did get through one on one and he was offside the flag stayed down and Alex went on to slot home comfortably.
General play saw Gresley start to play the smarter football as both teams played three in midfield it was very tight but we seemed to work the channels far more effectively than they did.
We went in at the break one nil up and thoroughly deserved, Bolt had taken a knock just before the interval and struggled to shake it off in the second half, substitute Caleb Alexander came on to devastating effect as through ball from Skinner found his timely run and with his very first touch of the game Caleb lobbed the keeper from the edge of the box.
Alvechurch now started throwing players forward in numbers and played rough football to get back into the game, this seemed to work as they grabbed a goal back with 15 minutes left.
The game got very tight and scrappy and I suppose it could have gone either way even though we did not deserve to go down. Then Guthrie was awarded a free kick about 30 yards out and Tom Skinner stepped up to drill hard and low through a crowd of players in the box, the ball took a slight deflection and fizzed into the bottom left corner of the net.
Game over, there was no way we were going to give two goals up now and on we went to the end playing good football and earning entry into the next round.
Gresley performance rating 8/10.
Final score: Alvechurch 1 - 3 Gresley Rovers
Dean amess (asst manager)
