Evo-Stik NPL Division One South
Raygar Stadium, Station Road, Mickleover
Saturday, 7th December 2013, 3.00pm
Sport At The Double
A late goal from Royce Turville was not enough to give Gresley a share of the points in a feisty game which saw both sides reduced to ten men.
Both sides bore little resemblance to the sides which met at the Moat Ground on the first day of the season but the result almost ended the same along with the same number of red cards shown.
Gresley were without skipper Jamie Barrett and Jordan Nadat who recently left the club so Alex Steadman was given the striker's role.
The game was unfortunately disjointed by some eager refereeing but it was a mistake which led to the opening goal. Gresley keeper Mats Morch came off his line to collect the ball but spilled it giving Warren Hatfield the easy task of running through to slot the ball into the unguarded net.
Gresley levelled with the goal of the game. Eric Graves slipped the ball out to Rob Spencer who raced down the right before hitting a thunderous shot over the head of the motionless Sports keeper Chris Martin and into the net.
The visitors went close to taking the lead when Graves smashed a fine shot which Martin could only parry but Spencer could only put the rebound over the bar.
Mickleover took the lead and again it was from a slip. Spencer was up in the top right corner of the hosts half but unfortunately lost his footing and the ball was quickly cleared down the line to Simeon Oshoboke who cleverly turned his marker before feeding the ball through to the impressive Karl Demidh who finished putting the ball across Mortch and into the far bottom corner.
Sports were reduced to ten men just before the break when an awful tackle by Liam Walshe on Jack Langston gave the referee Philip Hardisty no choice but to show a straight red card.
Gresley went agonisingly close to levelling again but O'Connell flashed his shot wide from Paolo Piliero's cross.
The second half started badly for Gresley as they too were reduced to ten men after Marc Strzyzewski collected his second yellow card but they were the first to make a chance as Liam Guest headed Langston's free kick over the bar.
Sports extended the lead in fortunate circumstances. A low shot by Ashley Grayson was heading towards the corner flag when it took an almighty deflection off Langston giving Mortch no chance as the ball rocketed past him.
Langston almost made amends for his misfortune when he fired a terrific shot narrowly wide of the upright after Steadman had rolled the ball into his path.
Sports keeper Martin kept his sides two goal cushion intact making a fingertip save from Steadman's shot on the turn. Steadman went close again but this time his goalbound shot was blocked by the keeper.
Gresley got a deserved second goal in injury time. A woefully short back pass from Dwayne Wiley allowed Turvlille to collect the ball before slipping it past Martin. Unfortunately it was too late as the referee blew his whistle to end the game seconds after the restart.
Manager's View
"I don't think Mark Strzyzewski's sending off affected the game at all. We never turned up today. I felt we were a bit cocky today over what we've done over the recent months where we've done really well.
"I think we forgot to turn up and we've been bullied out of the game. Defensively we weren't strong enough today. They had two guys upfront who caused us problems from the first minute of the game and we didn't deal with it. I was very disappointed with our back four, they're better than that but unfortunately we didn't turn up today. I don't know why, maybe the occasion got to a few because they were coming back to their old club and we didn't get going at all today.
"Mickleover wanted it more; they were first to the ball. This reminded me a little of the Halesowen game - not as bad as that but I thought we'd be right up for it today. We played well at Wrexham, we played well at Grantham as well but we didn't bring it into today's game unfortunately.
"karl Demidh caused us problems and we didn't deal with him. He caused Strez and Liam Guest problems all through the game. I said to the lads that they'd got to be more commanding at the back but they weren't and we got punished for it. Alright, they had a bit of luck with their third goal a deflection and it went in. We scored two goals and we should get something out of the game but we didn't deserve anything today.
"We'll have a chance to put things right at Ilkeston on Monday but I'm sure Kevin will want to put things right after beating them in the FA Trophy - Ilkeston will be up for it. One thing I've learnt about us this season is when we do have a bad result we normally bounce back and I'll be looking for us to bounce back on Monday.
"We've lost Jordan Nadat and whole way he went about it is disgusting. He's let me down, he's let the club down, he's let his sponsor down and most of all he's let the supporters down. Very disappointed and that's all I'm going to say about it."
