Gresley Rovers vs Leek Town
Gresley Rovers 1 - 8 Leek Town
Scorer: Pat Rowell
Team: Tom Allan, Danny Gee(c), Carl Wymark, Olly Baum, Kyle Jones, Tom Fletcher, Matt Holmes, Rich Hanslow, Sam Ingley, Pat Rowell, Chris Smith. Subs: Stu Haywood, Nath Holmes, Andy Morrison, Luke Taylor, Sam Worth, Jack Moylan.
Played Leek Town in the FA Youth cup, and having beaten Eastwood in the last round, we were confident despite our recent poor form. I kept the same team we had against Eastwood for obvious reasons, and we were in good spirits
before the game got underway.
We were soon to learn though just how good Leek were as within the first few minutes they broke forward, with both pace and numbers forcing a good save from Tom Allan. On the 7 minute mark we went 1-0 down, when again their pace and ability shone through, so we knew what to expect. They soon made it 2-0, when again they broke clear, and although there was a large vocal call for offside the goal stood. We pulled it back to 2-1 with a both cool and
precise finish from Pat Rowell leaving their keeper stranded. Leek were still running the show though and soon added another, again from a wave of offside
claims. We then seemed to let our heads drop, and at times preferred to argue with the many dubious linesman decisions, rather than concentrate on our game. I do and can understand our players though, because for the first half,the linesman was shocking!!!! but we need to just get on with it in these circumstances. So by half time Leek were cruising 6-1 and in all honesty it could and should have been more!!!
Second half we started slightly better, but the game was still being controlled by Leek, but we battled on and although Leek added another two we kept our heads up. So that's how it finished 8-1.
So summing things up, well where do we start???. Well we weren't at our best tonight, but if we were, Leek would have still took some beating. They were strong with great skill, ability and very well organised with no weaknesses at all. They played neat one touch football, and were both sharper and quicker than us. The result was not due to lack of trying on our part, which is great, it just shows that although we've progressed there is still a lot of work to be done if we want to match these teams. I honestly
believe that if we listen, learn from our mistakes (including me) and continue with the commitment and attitude we've got we WILL GET THERE!!!. Leek certainly deserved the win tonight and I think we wont meet a better team because they were quality. However we need to keep our shape when "the chips are down" and listen more. The result still had positives though because Tom Allan made some brilliant saves and we all worked hard and I think
that, although Leek were good, there wasn't a better player on the pitch than Kyle Jones because at times we left him on his own at the back and he was awesome. Heads up the work will continue until we achieve what we deserve!
