Matches

GRAYS’ CUP HOPES SHOT DOWN
by David Jarvis

Roscoe D'Sane ended Blues’ Cup dreams yesterday with two second-half goals in five minutes’ for Conference side Aldershot. A sending off for Ade Olayinka in the dying seconds compounded Grays’ misery. But there was plenty for Blues fans to cheer about, not least the opening goal from Leroy Griffiths that gave Grays a brief glimpse of the second round.

The first half of the game was competitive if uneventful, with both sides battling it out in midfield. Blues captain Martin Carthy faced ex-Grays man Adam Miller, and ex-Grays striker Aaron Mclean featured up front giving a bit of extra spice to the clash. But it was Aldershot who looked the sharper side for the majority of the half, winning plenty of possession in midfield. After 11 minutes, Shots had the ball in the net after an unmarked Mclean collected a ball over the top of the defence. His shot eluded ’keeper Mel Capleton but defender Matthew Rees’ touch rendered the goal offside.

At the end of the half a rash challenge by Tony Lock on Dean Hooper saw referee Mr Russell reach for his book and gave a signal of what was to come in the second half.

Danny Hayzelden replaced Lock at half time and as the game opened up, his work with Jamie Martin (playing in place of the suspended Freddy Eastwood) started to test the Aldershot defence. But Shots kept pressing, and with Grays looking vulnerable from set-pieces, Rees had a chance to put right his offside goal in the first half, but his volley from a corner slid wide.

Then on 57 minutes after a period of concerted pressure from Grays, big Eddie Youds met a Ram Marwa corner. Youds’ header found Leroy Griffiths lurking in the six-yard box and the ex-QPR man made no mistake. The temperature amongst the 1500-strong crowd rose considerably following the goal and Grays could have gone two up just minutes later. A solo run from the impressive Jamie Martin ended in a looped shot across the face of the goal that hit the woodwork.

With Grays looking all set for the second round, the game suddenly turned on a sixpence. In the 74th minute, a ball across the Grays defence contested by Lee Williams and Lee Charles saw the Grays man jump for the ball to no avail. As Charles turned away from Williams, he seemed to trip over. The referee adjudged Williams to have impeded Charles, and pointed to the spot. Shots’ star striker Roscoe D'Sane stepped up and placed the ball well to the right of Mel Capleton and despite going the right way, Capleton was unable to prevent D'Sane's effort nestling in the corner for the equaliser.

The penalty turned the tide, and Shots began pressing for the winner. Just five minutes later D'Sane caught the Grays defence napping, running past the last man and coolly slotting the ball under Mel Capleton's dive for Shots’ second. With tempers fraying towards the end of the game there were bookings for Hooper, Shields, Carthy, Williams and Marwa. Then just before the final whistle, Blues defender Ade Olayinka reacted badly to being pushed by Aldershot player Shields. The referee only saw the Grays man's reaction and a straight red card resulted.

After the game, Lee Williams said "The penalty turned the game for them. The ball came across me and I jumped for it, but I never touched him."

A disappointing result for Grays, but one which Mark Stimson can take much heart from - his young team testing a strong Conference side, and very nearly sneaking a victory. In the final analysis though, Shots were sharper and with a mildly fortuitous penalty decision showed a little bit of luck in the Cup can go a very long way.

Grays Athletic: Capleton, Bruce, Robinson, Youds, Olayinka, Williams, Marwa, Carthy, Lock, Martin, Griffiths Subs Barrett, Hayzelden, Bradshaw

Your comments

A reasonable match report,however you fail to report the fact that the ref gave a pen because your player grabbed Lees shirt as he turned.We saw it and so did the ref.
I think you have got a good young side and if you can keep hold of them you can only go onto better things.
Good luck.

Great report. Watching the TV highlights confirms how unlucky we were with the pen decision. A test of a good side is how you react to defeat, so let's see how we go on Tuesday. Bring on the Braintree!

Steve Shots, I believe you need a visit to Specsavers. I taped match of the day and have looked at the penalty incident several times. I'm sorry, but I don't see how you can have seen a shirt pull? It doesn't exist. You're just covering for the cheat Lee Charles who came on as sub and done what he was told to do, ran into the box and fell over!
All in all a fairish result on the balance of play, but it's one of the poorest games I've seen this season, shame. The only rememberable player was the ref who made sure he was always the centre of attention. Once again we seemed to have a conference referee, as in the Margate game who knew all the Shots players by first name and had a little smile and a laugh with them, but unfortunately referred to our guys as 'number seven' and 'hey, captain' if we ever get one like that on our side we'll be unbeatable!
Still, better luck next year for the Ath and congrats to the club for managing the event well.

We were unlucky with the penalty but they were the better team on balance - a good marker for what we are striving to achieve and how far we have come and still need to travel.

Well done to all who organised the day, let's hope it has given some of the irregulars a taste of what we can put on and so they come back for the bread and butter of the league games.

We are still in the Trophy and the league is not yet out of reach - COME ON YOU BLUES

Could it be that the ref knew the Aldershot player's names because they were written on their back whereas Grays.....

Well done the Shots. Better luck next year Gray's. May see you in the conference?

I agree Aldershot were the better team however the Ref was shocking. Talk about wanting to be centre of attention, every minute he was blowing his whistle for no reason, what happened to the free flowing physical game I used to watch.
Congratualtions to Grays and I'm sorry to say that Colchester will be to strong for Aldershot in the next round (Depending on the Ref that is?)
UP THE GRAYS ATH

Like the new league table feature. It'll look even better when we're higher up!!

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