Evo-Stik NPL Division One South
The Moat Ground, Church Gresley
Tuesday, 1st January 2013, 3.00pm
Ravens Hang On For Three Points
Gresley's Rob Spencer will start the New Year in hospital after fracturing his jaw in two places after a sickening collision with Coalville's keeper Sean Bowles.
Spencer had got to a high ball first but Bowles, who was well out of his area, clattered the wide man leaving him knocked out and seriously hurt. After a long stoppage referee Ben Cooke showed the visiting keeper a deserved straight red card not only for the poor challenge but also for denying a clear goal scoring chance.
It seemed that the incident knocked the stuffing out of Spencer's teammates and they struggled to contain Town who, despite being down to ten men went on to claim a comfortable win at the Moat Ground.
Gresley made changes to the previous line-up with Ryan Walker replacing the suspended Michael Nottingham. Midfielder James Jepson came into the squad with a place on the bench.
Coalville showed early on why they seem to be running away with the league title as they attacked from the first whistle with a shot being saved by Gresley keeper Gary Hateley. Josh Hall then volleyed just over the bar for the visitors and minutes later an even better chance went begging when the impressive Callum Woodward picked out Ryan Robbins who finished the move with a dreadful shot.
Gresley began to find their feet and indeed began to put the visitors under some pressure with Jordan Nadat firing Spencer's cross from the right over the bar.
Arguably the turning point came on 20 minutes with the dreadful injury to Spencer who needed to be carried off the pitch by stretcher before being ferried to hospital by ambulance where his injuries where confirmed meaning the popular player facing weeks out of the side.
Bowles was replaced in the Coalville goal by diminutive captain Cameron Stuart but the injury seemed to dampen the spark somewhat in the Gresley side.
Town brought out a good save from Hateley with the keeper pushing Robbins' shot away.
Deep in the Gresley area Robbins was superbly tackled by Walker who clearly won the ball fairly and cleanly but the referee unbelievably pointed to the spot to the anger of players and supporters alike. Woodward made no mistake blasting the penalty kick past Hateley.
Gresley did have chances but their low shots were easily dealt with by Stuart as Phil Massingham, Nadat and Danny Holmes all tested the new keeper out.
The home side went close to levelling things within minutes of the second half starting as Nadat beat the onrushing Stuart to the ball but his shot from an acute angle flew wide of the far post.
With Gresley pushing forward trying to make use of the extra man they were caught from a quick break. The home side were denied a clear hand ball in the Coalville area ignored by the assistant referee and the ball was down at the other end where Robbins flew down the left before firing the ball across Hateley and into the far bottom corner.
Woodward should have added a third for the visitors but fired well over the ball from a very good position totally unmarked.
Hateley then made a good save to deny Woodward whose superb free kick from the left looked goal bound.
Another controversial incident came with ten minutes remaining. Substitute Richard Hanslow, who looked to be onside when the ball was played, ran on to head Jordi Gough's high ball over the keeper and into the net but the assistant who had earlier missed the hand ball denied the striker his chance raising his flag for offside again to the anger and frustration of supporters and players alike.
Gresley did get a late consolation when Jepson's ball across the area was slipped home by substitute Marc Goodfellow at the far post.
Manager's View
"To me the referee got the decision right. Obviously their keeper didn't intend to hurt Rob Spencer but Rob put it past him and he made no attempt for the ball and he's there and he's wiped Rob out and he's in quite a bad way.
"It's a difficult one because there were covering players and I had no problem with that but it was a bit reckless and if you go into a challenge like that anywhere on the pitch you will potentially get a red card so from our point of view we wanted the red card. If one of our players had done that to one of Adam Stevens' players he'd have been asking for a red card.
"Rob is at the hospital at the moment and he's conscious. We think he may have lost a couple of teeth but we are just awaiting news to see how he's going. It's only five minutes since the full time whistle so we haven't had much of an opportunity to get an update.
"Coalville played well with ten men and that's why they're top of the league, they are a good side. We knew they'd sit in and try and protect their lead. They've had many one-nils this season with eleven men on the pitch and with ten I expected nothing less than them being very well drilled and organised.
"They then got their second goal. I think the ball may have hit a divot caused from them warming up before the game. When you have a game with so much water with a doubt whether the game is on or not and I turn up finding the opposition training on your pitch which I find astounding and hugely disrespectful. I couldn't even get my guys on the pitch to blow a few cobwebs away. I told Adam that before the game that it was hugely disrespectful to come onto our pitch and have a full training session. He said they were only on ten minutes but they were on just after 1pm and came off a 1.45pm, which is hugely disrespectful.
"Gary Hateley certainly could have done better with the second goal but that's why they are top of the league. Well drilled and great going forward.
"Their first goal came from us losing possession. Phil Massingham gave the ball away sloppily and they got the ball down the inside channel and Ryan Walker got the ball at the first attempt but then there was apparently a second contact which he gave the penalty for.
"I said to the players at half time that we were giving the ball away too much at times and we were not making use of the man advantage. Second half you wouldn't have know they had an outfield player in goal. We really didn't test him.
"Frustratingly, in the second half we didn't really get going. We were giving too many silly free kicks away and getting involved with things and we didn't get the ball down and move it and try to put pressure on them that way.
"We may have been a little unlucky when Richard Hanslow's goal was disallowed but the linesman had his flag up nice and early. Obviously we got the goal with four or five minutes to go and we were hoping it would lead to some pressure that they would have to dig out and apart from one scary moment I don't think we did that so it wasn't to be.
"It's easy to see why they haven't conceded too many goals, they are a great side. Adam and his staff have got them working very hard and they are well organised. The two lads up top today in particular are a big handful and are organised and well disciplined and it's no fluke that they sit at the top of the table with the record they've got. So you have to take your hat off to them but it was an opportunity missed with them going down to ten men and the score still at nil-nil you think you have an opportunity to cause an upset but they've shown today why they're top of the league and have ground a result out.
"We have another tough fixture against Stamford on Saturday. You look at these fixtures as the league has been developing and it was going to be an interesting couple of fixtures with Coalville top and Stamford second. We've already been to Stamford this year. We were two-nil up but came away two-two so it's going to be an interesting game to see whether we can bounce back from today.
"We really didn't get going in the second half and I'm a bit disappointed with that so I hope we get a reaction on Saturday and give the supporters who paid their hard earned money a bit more and send them home a bit more excited than today. If they are anything like me, I feel a little bit flat today as though we haven't got people up off their seats today and that's disappointing.
Normally we are right in games and causing excitement for people right to the death and even when our goal went in the atmosphere on the pitch was a bit strange. With four minutes or so plus injury time to go try and snatch an unlikely result and we kept kicking the ball out of play and wasting the opportunity to put pressure on the opposition.
"So we've got to address that and we will. We are still handily placed but we need to go on a run. We haven't been on one all year so if we can get on a good run, and we are capable of it because we've shown at times that we can play some good football, but we've got to play a bit better than today."
