| Having gone three games with nothing more than a point to show for their efforts, City travelled to the land of flat caps, mushy peas, whippetts and ace web design in the search of a league victory. |
| They say that in non-league football most grounds have character and Gresley's Moat Ground has more than most. Three sides of the ground are marginally wider than your average bus shelter with the saving grace being the area that hosts the stand and the clubhouse. Let's not forget that this place is the reason why Cheltenham are where they are today. |
| The home side are not enjoying the best of campaigns, not helped by their early season form where they lost five of their opening six games. However, things are turning around and who can forget they way they fought back to win a point at Meadow Park in the 3-3 draw in November. |
| There were a number of changes for City and with Marvin Thompson making his full debut in place of the suspended Lee Jeffries at centre half it looked like something from Herge's adventures of Tin Tin thanks to his partnership with namesake Chris. In midfield Keith Knight replaced Tom Webb who had exams and Adam Hemming was fit enough to take a place on the bench alongside Lee Davis, Baylo and the Gaffer. |
| Gresley had few familiar faces, although the most notable was that of Dale Belford, a goalkeeper cum clown who'd been involved in a controversial spitting incident at the T-End during the game against Atherstone in August. After their demise he headed up the A444 to Church Gresley and claimed the number one jersey. Their main attacking threat, Shaun Harrad had returned to Notts County and wasn't available to taunt the City defence. |
| It all went City's way from the off as the Tigers looked to put recent poor performances behind them. Although, for all the pressure on Belford's goal we had to wait ten minutes for the first shot as Lee Smith tried his luck from outside the area after a corner was cleared. However, his target was blocked by a forest of legs and so was his shot. |
| At left wing back Adie Harris seems to have proved his fitness and taken the number three shirt off the back of Adam Hemming, a player less than half his age. He showed that he could still cut it with the best as he easily outwitted two defenders before sending over a left footed cross that had to be cleared by the centre half under pressure from Andy Hoskins. |
| As Gresley found their feet, maybe with the game at Meadow Park in mind they shot from distance and forced a save from Matt Bath, with our keeper claiming the ball at the second attempt. That was followed by the City midfield needlessly giving away posession and creating an opening for Leon Doughty, but the midfielder dragged his shot wide of Bath's far post. |
| Rovers may have done better when a cross was headed hopelessly wide by Jamie Barrett when he got into a good position nearthe penalty spot. The Tigers clawed their way back into the game and could've scored when Dave Wilkinson sent a nicely weighted pass behind the defence but Jimmy Cox was just beaten to the ball by the defender. His interception back to Belford was actually picked up by the keeper but the referee refused to call a backpass! |
| A shot over the bar from Gresley and Hosky playing football with a defender's legs to earn a booking were the only other noteworthy acts of an even first half. The second was maybe destined to be different though as City have always had good fortune attacking down the slope at the Moat Ground. |
| As expected, City took advantage of the sloping pitch and using the abundance of pace the side have in the likes of Smith, Harris and Cox to torment the Derbyshire team's defenders. Lee Smith sent a perfect ball between the goalkeeper and penalty spot which could've been bundled in by two City players before it found Hosky at the far post. However, the rough surface acted as Gresley's twelth man as the ball hit a nasty divot casuing the City striker to mis-hit the ball wide and into the garden of one of the non-paying spectators that surrounds the tight Moat Ground. |
| City picked up their second booking as Neil Griffiths got in a tangle with the Gresley striker on the halfway line and pulled him down. If it had been closer to the goal Griff may well have seen red as he was the last defender. |
| If Andy Hoskins had rued his miss minutes earlier, he made up for it in no time as he found space at the far post to head in Jimmy Cox's superb right wing cross. The goal left Belford sat on his ass in his "we're hopeless at the back pose" rather than his usual cocky, showmanlike self. However, Cox's wonderful wingplay will be marred in the minds of the Rovers fans due to their insistence that it followed a foul on a Gresley player that the ref didn't spot. |
| If the former Atherstone stopper blamed his defence for the goal then he'd have been spitting feathers minutes later as he was sent off for deliberate handball outside the box. Coxy and Gresley centre back Matt Smith were in pursuit of a bouncing ball and Belford came to meet it to head it away, however Smith had other ideas and got his head to it first forcing Belford to cheat by putting his hands up to deny what would've been a clear goalscoring opportunity for Cox. An early bath for the veteran keeper. |
| As the keeper walked off he tore his shirt off and threw his gloves to the ground, before they were picked up and donned by midfielder Barrett. The City fans rejoiced at the red card, well, all except Guy Lammiman and his mate who were guests of Belford for the evening. Fair play to Guy though, he even gave the rookie keeper tips by telling him to shout "squeeze" alot whenever the ball came close. |
| Back to the game and City had a free kick from where Belford's unsporting behaviour had stopped the play. From behind the goal it looked as though top left or top right were the best options but Keith Knight drilled in a low, hard shot which the keeper could only fumble along the line where Marvin Thompson slid in ahead of Hosk to double City's lead and give me a mouthful of Gresley's finest mud as I cheered the goal. |
| With an obvious advantage City went looking for a third goal to kill the game and a lovely pass from Knight found Lee Smith in acres of space on the right wing, but as the City man cut in towards the goal he was crudely pulled back by Jamie Hood, the Gresley defender. The booking probably saved the South Derbyshire team another goal. |
| A double substitution by Gresley saw both full backs leave the fray and it was followed by a double booking for the home team. Firstly their striker Laurence Hall slid in dangerously on Marvin Thompson, who on his debut was putting in an assured display, and then Doughty, who'd missed a sitter in the first half was booked for dissent. |
| The sub keeper showed that he was no mug between the sticks when he confidently held a cross although his comedy throw out which ended at Lee Smith's feet on the edge of the box left much to be desired. Gresley made their third and final change before Smith had the chance to finish the game but sent his shot over the bar. |
| Marvin Thompson then tried to cap his full debut by scoring at both ends when he inadvertently deflected a hopeful low shot from distance onto his own post, leaving Matty Bath flat footed in the City goal. It was from set pieces where the home team were looking most likely to score and they came close as they headed wide at a corner. That was followed by another shot from outside the box which the nervy looking Bath spilled but claimed back before any damage was done. |
| Adie Harris' night came to an end with ten minutes remaining as he was replaced by Hemming to add extra pace down the left flank. If Chris Burns was hoping for an easy finale to the game in wasn't to be as Hall managed to contort himself well enough to get a head to a cross and watch as the ball looped up and over Bath before dropping into the far corner of the net. |
| City assumed that the best form of defence was attack and came close again through Andy Hoskins when his shot just cleared the bar after a defender had failed to clear Smith's cross. Wilko was fouled in midfield but got in a tangle with the Gresley man as they both got up, this led to a mass gathering in the centre circle and our man Marvin was booked on the say so of the linesman, although for what I'm not too sure. |
| With the game entering injury time Gresley may have snatched a point when Gary White shot over the bar but I think they used up all of their luck for the season in the game at Meadow Park so happily lightning didn't strike twice. Wilko managed to get his name in the book and Lee Davis replaced Coxy to waste a few seconds but the ref blew up after a late corner was cleared even with the sub keeper making the trip up into the box. |
| When all was said and done, City earned three points against a Gresley team whose performance on the night got them exactly what they deserved, nothing. It was nice to put the recent run of poor results behind us and hopefully we can continue in the same vein on Saturday at Yate. |
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