Pre-Season Friendly
The Arden Garages Stadium, Stratford
Tuesday, 11th July 2023, 7.45pm
Gresley Get Pre-Season Win
Ian Collins
Both sides made changes before the game to their published starting line-ups with Stratford, Louis Beresford replaced Liam O'Brien in goal and for Gresley James Spruce started with Lewis Belgrave on the subs bench.
The visitors started well with some good interplay between Danny Munday and Jamie Sleigh with split the home defence only for Munday to lose his footing as he was about to shoot.
In the 7th minute Rovers were denied by a good save, using his feet, from Beresford to prevent Steve Hart from opening the scoring.
The game settled after the early pressure from Rovers and became evenly balanced with both teams having an equal share of the play.
In the 20th minute Stratford had their first shot at goal through Jamie Molyneux which was comfortably saved by Lewis Fenney.
Stratford started to play some nice, controlled football but Gresley were defending well with Jayden Cotterill marshalling the back four well.
Stratford opened the scoring on 38 minutes. They played a long ball out of defence which found Riley O’Sullivan and despite the challenges of Donaldson and Cotterill he coolly played his shot low under the diving Fenney.
Gresley started the second half brightly and went close in the 50th minutes when James Spruce got to the ball before the Stratford goalkeeper, but a defender was on hand to clear the ball and moments later James Tague was just off target with a shot from the edge of the penalty area.
Four minutes later Gresley drew level when James Spruce broke clear, but his run was halted by the Stratford goalkeeper, but he kept his composure to pass the ball to debutant Jamie Sleigh who scored with a low shot from just inside the penalty area.
Gresley were playing more assured in second half with the back four looking assured. Danny Munday’s goal bound shot was deflected for a corner and from the resulting corner Albert Lansdowne scored from close range.
Rovers made changes with Dylan Hunniford, Hayden Brown, Kai Moore, Jordan Edwards, and Tyler Smith replacing Donaldson, Munday, Sleigh, Hart and Spruce.
It was a much improved second half performance from Gresley and claimed their first pre-season victory winning by two goals to one.
