Gresley FC vs Chasetown
1. Simon Baldwin 2. Sam Worth 3. Lee Stretton (c) 4. Paul Hollis 5. Sam Rose 6. Andy Dunn 7. Sam Taylor 8. Joe Urquhart 9. Dave Williams 10. Chris Burnham 11. Ash Franklin 12. Tom Read 14. Matt Draycott 15. Josh Pearson 16. Pete Collins
Having lost four on the trot we faced a tough encounter with title chasing Chasetown, and after a last minute rethink we lined up in a 3-4-3 formation to take the game to them.
16yr old Sam Taylor made his debut up front as we continue to look at players with a view to next season.
The opening exchanges were pretty even with Chasetown having some success with an extra man in the middle but that left us with opportunities to attack down the right through Sam Worth.
The one thing that was letting us down though was decision making in the final third. As has been the case in recent weeks we conceded a soft goal on 11 mins from a simple ball through the middle..earlier in the season we were winning games on the back of a strong defensive record as we don't score many, so at the minute were giving ourselves a mountain to climb with the amount of soft early goals were letting in.
To be fair the lads were putting in a good shift in hot conditions and the workrate was much improved but we were playing too many long balls that were being easily dealt with by the big Chasetown defence. When we actually got the ball down and played we looked like creating chances and on 25 mins a good move ended with a Andy Dunn cross and Dave Williams was unlucky with the shot.
The second was another gift on 37 mins when a cross was parried down by Simon but with five players stood watching, the Chasetown player had time to fetch the ball, turn and find the roof of the net and again we've shot ourselves in the foot and are having to chase the game again.
Second half the lads deserve credit as they kept going and tried to play some football and again the workrate never dropped..when things aren't going your way though football can be very cruel and on 57 mins a great cross from Sam Worth found Dave Williams, whose header came back off the post to be cleared as far as Andy Dunn, whose long range effort skimmed the bar and on another day we'd be right back in it.
A few half chances came and went as we had a decent spell but Chasetown started to retain possession better as we tired and created a few good opportunities late on that Simon did well to keep out and in the end we could have few complaints with the scoreline.
This now makes five straight defeats but there were positives to take from this one with a couple of young lads coming in and acquitting themselves well. At the minute though we just need something to fall for us and maybe were starting to snatch at things trying too hard to convert some of our chances. At times we played with too big a gap between midfield and the front runners resulting in too many long balls, and we need to get back to possession football as we've become too predictable..we've not turned into a bad team overnight we just need to grind out a result and play with a bit of confidence and i'm sure we'll end what has been a tricky period.
