Melbourne Dynamo vs Gresley Rovers
Team from: Allen, Gadsby, Mawbey, Grosse, Cox(c), Williams, Smith, Heer, Holmes, Rowell, Yearsley, Miller, Whetton, C.Smith.
At the start of the season this is the trophy I had set my heart on winning and after such a terrific first round victory, I thought it would be ours.
We began with a few players missing and Pemberton cup tied, but there was more than enough quality to defeat a side we had gone out to last year when having to play most of our Youth team.
I can make some excuses for what happened next but not a lot. The biggest factor was the size of the pitch. It lacked in both width and length and made it very easy for Melbourne to contain us and to get at us. I thought
Melbourne looked a much better side than last year but even so a team at our level should never be troubled.
However, before the game even started I was concerned and tried to get this over to the players. You know sometimes you can see an outcome and there isn't a single thing you can do to stop it. Today was a day for it.
Melbourne scored straight from the kick off. Some good work down the right and a smart finish off the cross. Not the best way for Gresley to start.
Melbourne had further chances and would have scored but for some fine stops from 16 year old keeper Tom Allen.
Gresley came back into the game and were level when Lewis Gadsby hit a superb 30 yard drive into the top of the net. However, it was only this sort of effort that was going to see us score further, as nothing else going forward looked very good. Melbourne set their stall out from the start and
worked extremely hard. Most of the time you had to ask yourself who played at the higher standard. We were beaten in nearly every position.
Just before half time, Melbourne's number six who had had an excellent game was sent off for kicking out at Greg Smith. Things got nasty for a while, including a punch to the back of one of our players heads as they walked
into the dressing room at half time.
Still we were at half time and all level so time to sort things out. We brought on Joe Miller for Matt Holmes, who was having no joy due to the lack of width, and moved to a 4-3-3. We had got away with the first half and it looked as if luck was on our side so we should go on to win it. How wrong could I be. I came out of the dressing room to see ten man Melbourne on the attack. How, I asked myself? I then saw them win a corner, which the number 5 centre half came up for and easily headed home. To make matters worse a minute later, Grosse should have cleared and called for Allen to collect a ball he wasn't going to make. The Melbourne player got a foot in and the ball rolled along the goal line, Gadsby was there and should have cleared. However, in trying to be careful not to put it in to his own net, he stepped over and tried to clear the other way. His clearance was blocked and rebounded into the goal. So about five minutes gone and 3-1 down against ten men.
Well Melbourne new exactly what to do, ten behind the ball and hold on. The pitch here would be of great assistance. They did this and Gresley never looked like breaking them down. Melbourne threatened on the break too.
Despite the possession of Gresley we never looked like scoring. The best chances fell to Ryan Yearsley who lost his footing when clean through and should have really got a head on two good crosses from Joe Miller. This was not a performance to blame on any one or two players though. There is a squad list on show and every single player has to hold his hands up to the poorest performance I've seen from us. We lost 3-1 and went out of a competition we could and should have won. It is no good blaming other
factors, we all played our part in this downfall, myself included. It was a disgraceful effort and we need to ensure it never happens again.
Tom Allen did very well in goal but we missed Pembo whose vocal talent would have sorted the back four out early on. We also missed Kye Hall upfront who would have caused the Melbourne defence a lot more problems.
Steve Thorpe said to me during the game how many of the Melbourne lads would you put into your side and I knew what he was saying. Two lads impressed me, the lad who got sent off and the number 5 at the back. I would strongly
consider both for a trial. Other than that though you know that the team as a whole wouldn't survive at the standard we play at week in week out, but they made us look extremely poor today. As a team we need to be able to cope
with any circumstance if we are to become the best we can be.
We have had a few problems over the last few weeks, some changes are being made and need to continue to be made. Hopefully we can move forward and improve again. We have some good youngsters in the club and I feel sorry for
them at times, but hopefully next season we will begin to see a lot more of them within the Reserves as they start to mature.
