Lichfield City vs Gresley Rovers
Gresley Rovers 0 - 2 Lichfield City
Team: Ian Parker, Joe Tomlin, Danny Gee, Dave Hatfield (c), Rich Foster, Luke Taylor, Josh Gregory, Joe Swift, Sam Worth, Mark Shorthouse, Paul Morton.
Subs: Matt Grice, Chris Smith, Craig Harrison, Sean Rudge
We were at home to Lichfield in the quarter final of the league cup, and after a heavy defeat in the league Lichfield must of fancied their chances. I was looking for a much improved performance and added Mark Shorthouse to thing to give us a bit of steel.
We started the brighter, and 4 minutes in, Paul Morton was hacked down from behind with only the keeper to beat. To everyone's amazement the ref waved play on.
Although we had the better of things, Lichfield opened the scoring on 20 minutes when keeper Ian Parker failed to hold a shot under the bar and their striker reacted quickest. Things were hampered further, when Shorthouse had to come off on 25 minutes with an injured ankle to be replaced by Matt Grice, and as we re organised things Lichfield got the upper hand.
With 10 minutes remaining of the first half, Josh Gregory's superb ball found Sam Worth unmarked and with only the keeper to beat, he shot only to see the ball come off the keeper's knee and out for a corner. Luke Taylor's corner was met by a volley only to see to shot hit one of our players and go out for a goal kick.
Second half started in much the same vein, with us having plenty of possession, but not troubling their goal. So with 15 minutes gone we replaced Worth for Chris Smith to give us a more attack minded look. Parker made two good saves, and a goal line clearance from Richard Foster kept the game alive as we pushed forward.
With 15 minutes remaining, I couldn't make another change as I was running the line and couldn't get a message to the subs. Three minutes later Lichfield added another to virtually seal the game when their striker turned our defender and slotted home. Joe Swift was hacked down by a crude challenge - the only one in the game - from their no 17 and the ref again waved play on. In the remaining minutes we pushed Danny Gee upfront to try to salvage something but to no avail.
Thanks to Chris Smith (although not in the starting 11) who offered to run the line first half - true clubman.
One gripe was the fact we argued with John (their manager who was running their line) a thankless task and unnecessary. Also players argued with the ref after the whistle ,and although he was poor, it does us or Gresley no good whatsoever.
Overall, a good performance, although we need to turn these into results. We're progressing nicely, but I know there's a lot more to come. We face Lichfield again in another quarter final in two weeks time and I'm sure if we're a little more cynical in front of goal, we can cause quite an upset. We just need to keep believing and making progress in the right direction and I'm sure we'll prove a match for any team in our league.
