Gresley FC 2 (Langston 70', Lyons 71')
Romulus FC 1 (Marshall 40')
Evo-Stik Northern Premier League Division 1 South, 23rd November 2013
Attendance - 262
Well this is my 5th review in my first month of blogging, Thank you for the continued support and I've passed 2,500 page views already! Please continue tweeting me (@chris_sharp18) with what you think and I'm always grateful for any retweets or feedback. I'd love to continue to do more with this blog and have a number of ideas but I'm still fairly new at this.
First of all, if you'd like me to come and visit you or your club then tweet me and I'll make a note and be along as soon as possible. I'd love to know if any clubs would consider putting a review of themselves by someone in their programme? So that hopefully I could publish a review for them to use after I've been. Or if any clubs would want me to visit so I could write them a piece? Maybe a piece about general ground hopping or reviews from other games that I've done?
Please can you or your club respond to me whenever possible as it would be great to see their opinion, I fully expect most clubs to simply say "No" but I'm not expecting it to happen anyway, it was only a thought. Any club, any tier, any where I'd love to hear from you!
You can simply tweet or direct message me on twitter @chris_sharp18
Secondly, I sometimes feel clubs can underestimate the effect of ground hoppers and blogs, they can actually be a crucial advertisement for clubs which are finding harder than ever to attract large crowds. Ground hops have became increasingly popular also providing big boosts for clubs, the Notts Senior League ground hop was a success last season and hop for the same this time but the Northern League Ground hop has also proved very successful. Even the Non League Day Conference ground hop (which I done) was a success. Now onto my actual review...
In the morning of the game I didn't quite know where to go, Tamworth were playing against Kidderminster so this left me with a choice from a few other local teams, but I shortened it down to either Coalville or Gresley. Both in the same league with mixed fortunes, Coalville continuing from last season and trying to gain promotion where as Gresley made a below standard start to the season which has picked up lately. Looking at the opposition I thought this game would be more interesting and entertaining. I imagined that Coalville would ideally look for a hard thought win against Lincoln United who seem an average team in this league and they'd most likely get it, which they did, 2-1 the score. So this left me with Gresley, a place I've been many times before.
For some unknown reason I hadn't been to Gresley for a league game this season, but I'm glad I chose this one! I first watched Gresley 2 seasons ago when they beat Westfields 3-2 in the last minute of the game, eventually becoming champions of the MFA and getting promoted to the NPL1S. Since then I've watched them a number of times and twice this pre season, with losses of 3-1 and 5-0 against Shepshed Dynamo and Solihull Moors respectively. I became quite worried for them as the close season saw a number of players leave, including Jordi Gough and Michael Nottingham along with their manager Gary Norton. With this big transformation happening so quickly I wondered if they could replicate the success of last season, the start of the campaign reflected this winning only 2 out of their first 7 league games, although a 2-0 victory against Kettering in the FA Cup did show promise. They were hovering just above the relegation zone and all looked worrying. In the past month this has all changed, 7 unbeaten in league and multiple cups and a string of promising signings where everyone seems settled under Martin Rowe. In 16th place before this game there was still work to be done. Romulus on the other hand have enjoyed an initial great start to the season, seeing them get some great results but are beginning to move ore mid table now, having won and lost the same amount of games before this one. Marcus Brown has been their main goal threat with 13 already and you could see his quality. I thought it seemed like it was going to be an interesting game and that it was.
I made the short walk to the ground from where we parked, paid our admission, brought a programme and entered via the gate behind one goal. The stadium is quite compact and located just off a main road in between lots of houses but at the same time the space is quite well used. The ground is now 3 sided due to them having to make the pitch longer when they got promotion into this league, behind the other goal there the left hand side when entering is fully covered, with more covered terrace and wooden seating running along the left hand side of the pitch. On the right you find the club house, club shop and offices, main stand, dugouts and changing rooms. Uncovered terrace is also located either side of the Main stand and there is also some covered down towards the far goal. For the league their currently in the number of seats is very good, must be a couple of hundred and everyone is capable of going under cover. The ground has a certainly feel about it, like what you'd imagine a proper traditional non league ground to be, following the clubs history. Following the demise of Gresley Rovers the club have re-established themselves and been on the rapid rise ever since. Everyone is very friendly and the club house is welcoming.
The match began as both teams looked gain a result and it was quite open.Gresley started having the best of the chances with quick breaks sometimes catching Romulus out. Martin Rowe had made two changes with Hayden Johns replacing Mitch Hanson and Alex Steadman coming into the midfield. Kieran O'Connell went close to opening the scoring for Gresley, but the onrushing Romulus keeper
blocked his shot. They continued piling pressure on and went close again when Steadman's great run down the right ended with a cross which was met by Piliero but his header came back off the bar and O'Connell fired the rebound over. Sam Grice then hit a volley which Romulus keeper Exall did extremely well to get a finger to it. Romulus started getting back into the game and Gresley keeper Alex Townsend made a fine save as Marcus Brown smashed in a free kick. The visitors took the lead in the 40th minute. A corner from Turton on the right was met by Marshall who was able to plant his free header into the net, with no chance for Townsend making it 1-0 to Romulus. This is how it remained at half time.
Half Time: Gresley 0-1 Romulus
Romulus started the second half well with Townsend pushing Brown's free kick away. However an inspired double substitution changed this, which saw Jack Langton and Mickey Lyons come on. Gresley then began to
apply pressure with captain Jamie Barrett having a header cleared off the line and Langston having a goal bound shot deflected away for a corner. He took the corner from the left and curled the ball over everyone and somehow into the far corner of the net, a quite extraordinary goal for Gresley 1-1 Romulus!
Less than a minute later Gresley doubled their lead. A great move from a counter attack down the left hand side ended with a shot blocked in the box, the ball came out to Lyons who slotted it into the net with Exall helpless. Within 10 minutes of coming on both subs had scored to now make it Gresley 2-1 Romulus.
The game wasn't safe for Gresley yet as Langston forced a good save from Exall but Romulus had a number of chances to force a draw. A shot from Lee Smith smacked Townsend's near post which eventually led to a shot was blocked on the line by Barrett. Gresley responded well and went close twice themselves late on Exall held a low shot the other was blocked. Romulus had one more attempt to get a share of the points but Townsend was equal to Blake Thompson's low shot. The game finished Gresley 2-1 Romulus which matched the way the game was played but Romulus must have felt gutted to give away their hard fought lead. This keeps Gresley's unbeaten run and slumps Romulus further but it was a very exciting and tense game to watch.
Full Time: Gresley 2-1 Romulus
Admission - £7 / £4 (Average for the league)
Programme - £1.50 (36 pages, some colour)
Entertainment - 3/5
Price - 3/5 (Average)
Programme - 4/5 (Very stylish, good feel, good read, loads of notes and information and just everything you want)
Facilities - 3/5 (Everything you want but maybe some outdated a little)
Pictures all taken by me
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