Gresley Rovers vs Newhall United Reserves
Gresley Rovers Youth 2 - 4 Newhall Utd Reserves
Scorer: Andy Elliot 2
Team: Stu Haywood, Jack Moylan, Alex Peplow, Joe Tomlin, Kyle Jones(c), ToddFoster, Andy Elliot, Sam Ingley, Chris Smith, Rich Hanslow, Paul Morton.
Subs: Mark Sladen, Matt Grice, Dean Acton.
We were at home against our Derbyshire neighbours, Newhall today with the game being switched to a home tie due to their pitch being un-available. I was hoping to get something from the game, as Newhall are in a similar
position to ourselves, I went with Kyle Jones as captain due to his outstanding form and consistency this season despite being only 16 years of age.
So the game started, although we didn't, because with less than 2 minutes gone, we went 1-0 behind when nobody reacted to a through ball and their striker had the easiest of runs to beat Stu Haywood. We've spoke about being switched on from the start, so to say I was disappointed would be an understatement. We then seemed to loose our confidence, because the ball seemed to become a "hot potato" because as soon as we got it we couldn't
wait to get rid of it.
Within 10 minutes we were 2-0 down, when our defence made an error, and passed the ball backwards finding a opposing striker on his own. So again we were chasing a game, and on 20 minutes we were forced to replace Todd Foster (with a groin strain he'd been struggling with) with Matt Grice. To be perfectly honest Newhall seemed to want it more than us, and although we settled down and started playing some neat passing football, Newhall added a third before half time.
We started the second half with Mark Sladen in goal, not just because he's impressed both Dave Fleary and myself at training, but Stu Haywood was suffering with the flu. So we did look a little better from the start, as we were passing the ball around more and looked a lot more like the team we know we can be. We then replaced Sam Ingley (again suffering from a groin strain) with Dean Acton, this meant Paul Morton going on the right wing and Dean
Acton partnering Rich Hanslow up front. So with only 7 minutes gone we'd used all our subs, which can be risky with so long left, but I had no choice due to injuries. We then conceded a fourth goal so we needed to dig in and we did this.
We were playing better though and Acton twice met great crosses, one from Elliot and the other from a great run by Moylan, in their 6 yard box and put one over and the other hit the bar and came out. Morton was working his socks off, and through pure determination, he crossed a great ball which was again met by Acton at the back post, but he was stretching to reach it and it went wide. From another determined run Morton was fouled about six yards from the
bye line outside the box, and Elliot took the free kick which he struck sweetly into the far corner of the net.
So with only 18 minutes left we were 4-1 down, but with a very slight glimmer of hope, and we switched Hanslow into mid-field and pushed Elliot up front. This really changed things for us, because Hanslow (as we've seen before) made a big difference in there, and Elliot was a different problem for their defence. From a long kick Acton flicked the ball on, their keeper came for it, but missed it and gave Elliot an easy header into the empty net. So with 12 minutes left we had a little hope, and although Newhall
attacked us, we hung strong and we dug in with a couple of great tackles in our area from Morton and our defenders. We got a corner and the ball clearly crossed the line, hitting the back of the net and coming back out, but it was
not awarded. So as the whistle blew we had again lost.
I've got to be honest; I think that today it was one of our worse performances so far this season. Newhall worked hard and so did we, but they worked hard together as a team and with the players we've got we should be beating teams like them. That's no disrespect for them, because they deserved the victory, but we still seem to want to "hoof" the ball far too much at times. On the times we got it down and passed it around we looked good, but sadly we never did anywhere near enough of it. They were quicker to the "second balls" than us, but as said before, we're still learning but as part of the learning we need to listen and learn from our mistakes. In any game though there are positives, because as bad as we did play, we could of still won it if we'd of had a little more luck in front of goal. So lets keep working on our weaknesses, learning and listening and we really need to talk more on the pitch. We need you All there at training and work on certain things, the corner we were "turning" appears at the moment to be a Traffic Island with no exit!!! Heads up though lads lets keep up the great attitude and belief in what we're trying to achieve.
Mom: Rich Hanslow, showed great versatility and battled for everything.
