Blakenall vs Gresley Rovers
Cold Starters – Rex Page – Burton Mail
Gresley rovers brushed of the icicles and emerged from their month-long hibernation to leap into the third place in Banks’s West Midlands League Premier Division at Somerfield Road on Saturday.
But victory by no means came easily and it was perhaps as well that Rovers ‘ resumption of activity was against a side bereft of talent on the pitch and, it appears, in some difficulty off it.
By the interval, Gresley were 3–0 ahead and seemingly capable of going somewhere near to repeating their 8–0 annihilation of Armitage on their last away game a month ago.
In the event, the rust apparently gathered during the enforced lay-off thrust its way to the surface in the second half.
Twice Blakenhall came within a goal of levelling the scores and it was not until Clive Arthur snatched their fifth two minutes from time that Gresley could be certain of maximum points.
To be fair, it was not a day for defenders. They were constantly betrayed by a rock hard pitch which prompted the ball to leap about at grotesque angles and a swirling wind did nothing to ease the apprehension of both teams.
Still, there could be no real excuse on Rovers’ part for allowing their total first half command to develop into a dithering display after the interval.
It took Rovers only ten minutes to punish a brittle Blakenhall defence. Dave King won possession midway inside home territory and supplied a telling pass to Brain Beresford who hit a firm low drive beyond the reach of Dave Thomas and into the far corner.
Beresford struck again in the 18th minute, this time capitalising when Phil Hollingsworth lost his footing on the still frozen surface to beat Thomas with a right foot shot from an improbable angle.
And in the 33rd minute a victory of some magnitude seemed probable when Arthur rammed in his ninth penalty of the season after Robert Philpott had been sliced down in full flight by Roy Collins.
The pattern of the game barely altered in the opening stages of the second half. Arthur hit a dipping volley inches wide and Beresford was denied his hat-trick by the legs of Thomas.
Yet when Dave Burrows became the first player to score by Karl Austin in 330 minutes with a speculative left foot drive in the 58th minute. Gresley began to fret and fidget like a scolded child.
Blakenall were visibly lifted and could hardly believe their good fortune when Brian Attley allowed himself to be dispossessed by Burrows, whose left wing centre was sliced wide by Austin by the shinpad of airborne Marcus Malcolm in the 63rd minute.
Gresley at least, had not lost all sense of purpose in attack, though both Arthur and Kevin Banton failed to make good use of inviting space on both flanks.
Nonetheless, Rovers conjured up a gem of a move in the 72nd minute. It was started by Attley deep in his own and the ball was swiftly transferred forward in a flowing five-man move that ended with a Dave King curling a right foot shot into the roof of the net from the edge of the area.
That ought to have been the end of the matter, but Gresley made another rod for their own backs in the 80th minute when Clive East escaped down the right and provided a perfect centre for Burrows to turn in Blakenall’s third.
The possibility of a priceless point being fritted away loomed large for the travelling supporters and it was with some relief that their anxiety was relieved two minutes from the end.
Philpott’s long ball out of defence caught Blakenall undermanned in defence and Beresford cleverly kept possession until Arthur arrived to receive a square pass and beat Thomas with a fine low drive form 12 yards.
Blakenall (0) 3
Gresley Rovers (3) 5
Scorers: Burrows 58, 80; Malcolm 63, (Blakenall): Beresford 10, 18; Arthur 33 (pen), 88; King 72, (Gresley Rovers).
Blakenall: Thomas, Dicken, Turner, Collins, Hollinsworth, Harding, Haynes, Malcolm, Burrows, East, Roe. Sub: Humphries.
Gresley Rovers: Austin, Attley, Earley, West, Dolby, King, Arthur, Laws, Philpott, Beresford, Banton. Sub: Bromley.
Referee: A Smith (Rubery).
