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Make or break
Story courtesy of
Gresley Rovers’ season-long quest for honours reaches make or break point over the next seven days.
Three games during the period will decide whether Rovers will have any silverware in their trophy cabinet in May.The Moatmen, who have battled so valiantly on three fronts for eight often stormy months, face Oldbury United tomorrow and again on Tuesday in games that will decide who take a place in the Banks’s League Cup Final against Atherstone or Rushall and, in all probability, which of the two will finish in runners-up spot at the end of the season behind champions elect Atherstone.
On Thursday, Rovers entertain struggling Tipton Town. While manager Frank Northwood will not yet publicly concede that the championship is beyond Rovers’ reach, the Adders’ march towards the title has been so impressive in recent months that not even the wildest of optimists would bet against them.
Rovers’ main rivals for the runners-up spot are Oldbury, a side they still have to meet three times before the end of the campaign.
Tomorrow’s encounter is, on paper, the most testing of the three as it takes place at Oldbury.
Rovers will miss the unavailable Nick Sales from defence but could introduce new midfield signing Hughie Atkinson.
Manager Northwood said this week that he planned to get the former Wolves and Exeter man “blended into the side for next season,” but a player of Atkinson’s class could surely lift Rovers in their final run-in.
And Northwood will surely not miss the chance to do just that.
