Evo-Stik NPL Division One South
The Bright Finance Stadium, Sheffield Road, Dronfield
Tuesday, 18th March 2014, 7.45pm
Gresley Show Their Steel At Sheffield
Gresley finally broke the run of away defeats with a solid performance at Sheffield despite being reduced to ten men after Lucas Harrison's remarks to the assistant referee after a very dubious penalty decision saw the young defender given his marching orders.
Alex Steadman opened the scoring for the visitors in the first half before Tim Whittaker levelled from the spot. Eric Graves' delicate lob and Zibusiso Nyatito's strike with a minute remaining gave Gresley a richly deserved away win and three well earned points.
Gresley manager Martin Rowe made changes to the side that suffered defeat at Carlton on Saturday with Hayden Johns coming in at right back in place of the injured Mitch Hanson. Marc Strzyewski was put into midfield with Jamie Barrett returning to his usual centre half role alongside Liam Guest.
Royce Turville was given a start and Rob Spencer had recovered from a bout of illness to take his place on the right.
Gresley started brightly with Spencer hitting a volley just wide of the mark and minutes later Sheffield also had a chance after they were awarded a free kick centrally a yard outside the area. Andrew Gascoigne took the shot which was superbly turned away for a corner by keeper Mats Morch diving low to his left. The visitors struck back with Turville hitting a shot on the turn wide of the far post.
On the half hour mark Gresley were forced into a change when the unfortunate Spencer received an accidental bang on the side of the head which resulted in blurred vision and his replacement by Nyatito.
Gresley took the lead just before the break when Turville helped the ball on for Steadman to run onto and he finished coolly slotting the ball across keeper Liam Mitchell and into the far bottom corner of the net.
The lead was almost doubled a minute later when a free kick from the left by Harrison was met by Turville but his header went the wrong side of the far post.
Sheffield made a change at half time bringing on Joel Purkiss for Brandon Cardwell and it seemed to have the desired effect as they began to press Gresley back and the pressure should have seen them level but Gascoigne somehow conspired to hit a shot high over the bar from the centre of the goal.
Gascoigne hit his next shot, a volley at the far post, even higher and far wider when again well placed.
However, Sheffield levelled in somewhat controversial circumstances. A ball in the area seemed to ricochet off Barrett and onto the top of Guest's shoulder giving the young defender no chance of moving out of the way. To the Sheffield player's credit not one of them appealed for a penalty but the only person in the ground to have adjudged it as a misdemeanour was the assistant referee who brought it to the attention of referee Mark Foster who awarded the spot kick to absolute silence in the ground.
The Gresley players were incensed by what they thought was totally the wrong decision, unfortunately one of several during the game, but their appeals were in vain as Gascoigne converted the spot kick.
The players were still visibly angry as the play restarted with Lucas Harrison making his views known to the assistant referee who in turn notified the referee resulting in a straight red card for the young defender.
Gresley didn't let their heads drop and they began to get back on top with Strzyzewski firing a shot wide of the far post.
With seventeen minutes remaining Turville was replaced by Bradley Wells and it was his pass ten minutes later to Graves wide right that gave his side a deserved lead once more. Graves collected the ball, looked up and with Mitchell well off his line clipped a delicate lob over the stranded keeper and into the net.
The game was wrapped up with a minute left of normal time. This time it was Steadman who was the provider as he picked out Nyatito found the net striking a dipping shot over the head of Mitchell.
Manager's View
"This sort of officiating seems to be following us around at the moment seeing things that nobody else sees!
"I was sat with the supporters because I was serving my one match ban and even they can't believe it. Nothing seems to be going our way even when Zibusiso Nyatito came on. He got fouled and was booked for doing nothing wrong.
"I thought the first half performance was very spirited. We didn't create much but I think we just edged it and Alex Steadman scored an extremely good goal and I said to the lads at half time just go on and win the game but decisions just kept going against us all the time so we couldn't get any momentum in the game. The referee was giving free kick after free kick to Sheffield and obviously the players got frustrated and were thinking it was going the same way as Saturday.
"The penalty, nobody saw it and not one of their players appealed. The ball hit Liam Guest on the shoulder and there was nothing he could do about it. If it's intentional you put your hand up but he didn't because it hit his shoulder. We were absolutely amazed and it's one-all. Then the linesman put his flag up and got Lucas Harrison sent off for a saying something but I'm sure officials have heard much worse. A sending off? Not in my book.
"We were then down to ten men but we showed a lot of grit and determination. We defended extremely well and kept playing. We brought Brad Wells into the game and he showed the ability and skills he's got.
"If I had to pick three players one would be Marc Strzyzewski who has done well tonight. Alex has done well tonight and Eric Graves with his pure energy all over the park. It's a team game and they have all done well tonight.
"When Marc went on loan to Rocester he was played in midfield. I asked him to go in there win, head it and just turn things around which he did very well.
"Rob Spencer got a knock on the side of the head and he got a bit of blurred vision so you take no chances when something like that happens so we had to take him off.
"We are looking forward to the game on Saturday against Kidsgrove. We let them off the hook at their place. I just shows that when teams go down to ten men that bit of spirit goes a long way and we've got to take that into Saturday now and move on. We've got rid of the hoodoo now - perhaps it was the white kit!
"We've had seven days in for Kieran O'Connell from Coalville. I think its general knowledge that he's seeing Adam Stevens tomorrow. Kieran has already had a very good offer but we are hopeful Kieran will stay but if he goes there is nothing we can do about it. We can't compare with the wages Coalville are paying out at the moment.
"We've tried to bring a few players in ourselves but we have the players and we are not going to go down so save the money to add on to next year. I know some of the fans will not like that. It was just a shame that when we were having a good spell we didn't push on due to injuries and not having a big enough squad.
"Look at Saturday we had six players out and lost two-one and tonight we did have Royce Turville and Rob back but then lost Rob again. Other players are coming in. Zib has done well again tonight as has Brad.
"We are hoping to have a new player in for Saturday. He's French but we have got International clearance from the FA now so as long as we can get the paperwork done in time we will have a new forward at the club."
