Overseal St Matthews vs Gresley FC

Overseal St Matthews 2-4 Gresley 'A'

Scorers: Riddell, Allsopp, Tomlin, A Dowell

Team: Ian Parker (c), Danny Gee, Sean Hopkins, Joe Tomlin, Scott Allsopp, Paul Carpenter, Luke Taylor, Rich Dowell, Paul Morton, Ash Riddell, Andy Dowell.

Subs: Andy Simons, Matt Holmes, Matt Gee, Rich Mansfield, Ben Whitely.

Results have been less than pleasing so far this season. We travelled to Overseal on the back of a 4-1 drumming from them two weeks ago which saw us out of a cup. With this firmly in Craig Harrison and my minds, there's been a lot of conversation about certain issues, mainly the amount of soft goals we've been leaking. The problem we've had with these is the fact they've come from lots of different individual errors, making sorting them more of a problem.

On the plus side we had a strong squad to choose from, with only Matt Holmes a doubt with an ankle injury, but he showed what a credit he really is turning out to go on the bench just in case we needed him.

So to the game, our team talk consisted of various areas that I believe we can and should improve, mainly the fact that we should get into a passing game a lot more. We started with another new centre half pairing of Tomlin and Allsopp, which both Harrison and myself thought would work.

We started off very, very well with some nice passing and we actually showed that we can do this on Saturdays as well as in training. We put Overseal on the back foot from the off, and had the confidence to build things from the back rather than just kick and rushing. Our tactics certainly paid off when on the 10 minute mark, Riddell fired home to give us a much deserved lead.

Rich Dowell was creating pressure on their defence down the left, and was brought down numerous times. On one such occasion up stepped Morton, and from some way out, saw his tremendous effort beat their keeper but come crashing off the crossbar.

Rather than Overseal sit back and think they'd been lucky not to be two down, they got an equaliser from another defensive error which saw Harrison and me look at each other, we didn't need to say anything our looks said it all. We then reverted back to hoofing things, which obviously suited Overseal more than us and true to form Overseal punished us again, two chances two goals.

We then settled down, and actually started to move the ball round again, with both Taylor and Carpenter playing some quality balls from midfield. This meant that we again put pressure on Overseal's defence, but many times they stood firm which is credit to them. We got the much deserved equaliser when Allsopp rose from a Taylor corner to head home.

Halftime we spoke about being patient, we needed to be because I felt if we did and kept to our game plan we could go on to win.

Second half we came out fighting, playing some football which was very pleasing on the eye, we believed in ourselves but more importantly we believed in our team mates.

We still put pressure on Overseal, but showed that we didn't need to rush things and rather than let things break down we'd pass it back and build again.

With twenty minutes gone Mansfield replaced Hopkins, who had done well on his full debut. We then got the lead when again Taylor delivered a great corner which was headed home by Tomlin through a gaggle of Overseal defenders. So 3-2 up could we actually go on and win the game?

Rich Dowell made way for Whitely who soon got into things, as we looked to control the game. With 15 minutes to go Andy Dowell did what he'd threatened and broke free to coolly slot home to make it 4-2.We then replaced Morton for Simons to give us a more defensive approach.

We had Parker to thank for an absolute sublime save because if he hadn't the last 5 minutes would have been nail biting as Overseal never gave up and that's huge credit to them.

Today was pleasing in many ways, obviously a win should build confidence, but some of the football we played today was a class above what we've done this season. Parker built from the back and our confidence to do this showed just how good a footballing team we can be.

Let's not get carried away though, we've leaked two more sloppy goals making 14 in four games which is not happy reading, and certainly is way off what I expect.

MoM: Scott Allsopp, great defensive display today and looks like him and Tomlin are forming a good pairing