Beacon Park vs Gresley Rovers
Beacon Park 3 - 1 Gresley Rovers
Scorer: Steve Pepper
Team: Tom Allan, Danny Gee, Carl Wymark, Gaz Jones(c), Tom Gregory, Steve Pepper, Mark Shorthouse, Todd Foster, Mat Holmes, Nath Venning, Rich Hanslow.
Subs: Stu Haywood, Ben Kinson, Dean Acton, Tom Fletcher, Jordi Gough
It was a top of the league clash today, with us 2 points above Beacon, but them having a game in hand. We were without Chris Smith, with a knee injury from last week, but were boosted by the return of both Mat and Jordi. Tom Fletcher was delayed on his way over to Litchfield so we had to shuffle things around a bit.
We started with the same back four as last week, putting Steve Pepper in midfield with Mark, with Todd on the left, Mat on the right and Nath partnering Rich up front. We were unlucky not to be leading when Rich Hanslow took a quality strike, which produced a fine save from their keeper. However with 30 minutes gone they broke free, and despite Danny's and Carl's best efforts, their striker finished to make it 1-0. We were still not playing enough passing football, but when we did we looked dangerous, but with 8 minutes to half time we were 2-0 down when a bit of hesitation in defence lead to their second.
Second half we started to play more football than we had first half, and were unlucky when Mark shot just going wide, with the keeper beaten. Then a great Pepper strike, into the bottom corner, made it 2-1 with 8 minutes gone. We brought on Tom Fletcher and searched for an equaliser and with 25 minutes left, Dean Acton replaced Pepper, and we were doing all the pressing, that final ball always letting us down. With 15 minutes left we replaced Todd for Jordi but still couldn't find the much-needed goal.
With only 5 minutes left, we threw caution to the wind, pushing Tom up from defence to attack and he was unlucky having a couple of good attempts on goal. In the dying minutes the ball took a lucky bounce and despite some heroic efforts from Tom Allan they made it 3-1.
So today we were beaten by a good team, but I honestly believe, that if we'd have played the football that we have, and know we can, we would have taken the 3 points we wanted. So with the other results today we've dropped to 4th in the league, not the end of the world, because runners up spot is still a possibility. We can only achieve that by continuing to play to our strengths, which is ball on floor and passing it around. So lets keep up the great team spirit that we always have, and begin to realise that we need to sometimes just need that little bit of composure on the ball we lacked today.
So heres to Shobnall Sports next week!
MoM: Tom Allan - made some great saves to keep the game alive.
