Derbyshire Senior Cup First Round
The Moat Ground, Church Gresley
Tuesday, 13th October 2009, 7.45pm
Senior Cup Win For Gresley
It was a hard fought victory for Gresley in the first round of the Derbyshire Senior Challenge Cup at the Moat Ground against local rivals Borrowash Victoria.
Both sides found it difficult to get into their rhythm and clear cut chances were at a premium in a dour stop-start first half.
The first half chance fell to the home side when they forced a corner on the right taken by Matt Hill which was headed just over by Brian Woodall.
Borrowash responded with a shot from Martin Gadsby blocked and then Jamie Pawley firing wide of the far post and then having a shot blocked.
On 20 minutes the visitor's had another decent chance when a cross from Gadsby picked out Pawley but his shot was well blocked at the near post.
Gresley's Woodall was put through on goal five minutes later but Vics' keeper Stephen Smith did well to block the shot with an outstretched leg.
Home keeper Simon Baldwin had to be alert to deny Vics when a shot on the turn threatened to breach the Gresley defence but Baldwin saved well.
Minutes later Baldwin again was needed this time to tip over a cross-cum-shot that almost caught him out.
The second half started briskly with Woodall testing Smith. Awarded a free kick 25 yards out Woodall fired a shot goalwards but Smith got down well to push the ball away.
Gresley took the lead in somewhat fortunate circumstances. Rob Spencer made a fine run into the area and unleashed a low shot that Smith blocked well with a boot. The ball flew out and hit the unfortunate Andy Mottershead and ballooned back over the stranded Smith and into the net.
Carl Slater then went close driving a low shot that Smith did well to hold onto down to his left. Spencer then went close with a shot that was inches wide.
On 64 minutes a high ball was expertly controlled on his chest by Woodall who then hit a shot that flew just wide of the far post.
Ten minutes later Borrowash were a couple of inches away from levelling. A free kick taken by Rory Maxwell found Mottershead unmarked in the centre of the area but his header clipped the top of the bar and went over.
The game was wrapped up with just three minutes of normal time remaining when substitute Matt Weightman made a fine run down the left, cut into the area and unleashed an unstoppable shot past Smith.
Manager's View
"I think tonight's game was a similar ninety minutes to the neutral to Saturday. I thought Borrowash were fantastic in the first half. They had us on the back foot and they had more desire all over the park and they were working a lot harder than us.
"We were allowing them time and space to play some good football and we know they are capable of that.
"One thing Mark's (Wilson) has got going there is a group of lads - and I've seen them on a couple of occasions - who absolutely work hard for him and they played some good football in the second half.
"And yet in the second half we were a little bit of a different side. I don't know what really triggered that but we had a bit of a dig at our lads at halftime to say we were being out fought and out worked all over the pitch.
"Whether that had an effect in the second half because we looked a little more up for the fight and we got the ball down and worked very hard off the ball to give ourselves options and more importantly when they got the ball we worked a lot harder to get ourselves organised and the frequency they'd been opening us up in the first half didn't happen in the second half.
"We got a little bit of luck with the goal and I'm sure Borrowash would have been kicking their heels at that because at the time the game was very even.
"I don't know if the goal affected them a little bit because we then seemed to have a little bit more of the ball but in the final third we were a little bit wasteful with the final pass and we seemed reluctant to get shots off when the opportunities afforded themselves. If you get a shot off it could deflect it come off somebody but we were always checking back and trying to build again. A lot of the times attacks in good positions fizzled out and played into their (Borrowash) hands.
"It was frustrating so to get the second goal and a lovely goal it was from a lovely passing move and I'm delighted for Matt Weightman to cut in and squeeze the ball in.
"Overall it was hard work. I wish it was in the league but we'll take that. We needed that clean sheet. It's only the fourth in fourteen games so although we are scoring quite regularly the concerning thing for us, and we are looking at it and maybe take two or three steps to address that, is the clean sheets we are not getting. After fourteen games we should be on more than four. But it was really pleasing and a good work out for us.
"I've got the upmost respect for the club (Borrowash and Mark in terms of the team he's got together. They went very close to winning this league last year and he's done it on nothing basically. And when you see the commitment and desire these lads give as a club you've got to take your hat off.
"We are in the fortunate position that most of our lads pick up expenses to cover their travelling and we've got one or two who earn more than that the more established lads but lots of sides in this league pay very little if anything and we know that if Borrowash win their game in hand they'll go above us.
"In terms of the season's start they've done better than us and we need to be more like we were in the second half but there are still concerns if we are playing like that. Teams like Radcliffe and Borrowash know what this league's about. They are very, very organized, very, very disciplined chances are at a premium and I still have concerns that physically we are not quite there matching sides so I've got to try and look at that.
"Gareth Langford and James Davies were given the night off. Gareth has just become a dad and is supporting his wife and James for personal reasons was not available tonight his own choice so we went with that and gave him the night off and let's not forget we had two lads out there who have played massive chunks of the game who has had hardly any football this season.
"Stefan Marshall came off at halftime feeling the opposite hamstring to the one that's been troubling him so the poor lad is stop start at the moment and it's frustrating. Chris Gray that was his first ninety minutes of the season the first action of the season his last being in pre-season when he broke his foot.
"The plan tonight was to give him sixty minutes, seventy minutes maximum but he's come through it and got ninety minutes under his belt and I'm sure he'll know about it in the morning and there was pitch time for other individuals.
"We had Rameer Outlaw - what a name - on the bench tonight. We've not seen him play before. A friend of mine out me in touch with him. He's just moved into the area at Derby University and impressed in a trial for the University and we had him over for training last week. When we decided to give one or two the night off and we've got one or two injury concerns as well Adam Betteridge was complaining of a tight calf and Brian Woodall, who was originally on the bench, was complaining of a tight thigh, Royce (Turville) was on the bench, Jordi (Gough) was on the bench who's seen a little action recently. So we gave them a call this afternoon.
"We had planned to have a look at Rameer in the game we purposely had arranged for next week and maybe one of two others and give some needed pitch time to one or two of the guys. Rameer managed to get over and I would have liked to have given him a little bit more but the game was tight at one-nil and I really didn't want to upset things but we saw in the few minutes that he's got a bit of pace about him but we'll have a closer look at him next week.
"We've signed a goalkeeper tonight. It's no secret that we've been looking to bring another goalkeeper in. We've only got one keeper at the whole club as I've said previously the reserves are playing with an outfield player in goal currently.
"We've signed one goalkeeper tonight and hopefully another was watching who had come over and was interested. Simon needs to be put under pressure. He's had long periods in games where he's not had anything to do and he's had some big opportunities where he could have saved us. For me Simon needs the pressure on the shirt and we're hoping the goalkeeper we've brought in will do that.
"We'll have a look at them. We've got the league cup and the Derbyshire cup and neither are a priority for us so we'll try and give some pitch time to both guys in that game and take it from there. We are delighted to have got someone because if Simon had got injured or had a really bad game and his confidence affected or had to go to work."
