GOOD GID
Yeltz 3 Gresley 0
18 August 2001
It's several hours later now and I'm still smiling. Last year's doom and gloom has been completely swept away by a really promising performance and an excellent result - bring it on!
Let's not get carried away though; Gresley looked a pretty poor outfit to me, even taking into account we're in the Western Division now. However, Kerry Giddings was truly outstanding , with what must be the best hat-trick ever at The Grove? - an overhead kick from the edge of the box and two top corner 25 yarders.
A lot more movement on the transfer front this week. Dennis Bailey and his nephew Alfie Carter have finally gone, and Ricky Otto has decided to hang up his boots too. However, we've made some more new signings in Gary Smith, Michael Gray and well known non-league striker Leroy May .
Next week takes us to Sutton Coldfield on Tuesday, and then to the West Country on Saturday to meet Chippenham Town.
Match Report from Poll
Yeltz: Clarke, Skidmore, Burnham, Knight, Collins L, Smith N, Hall, Giggings, May, Taylor, Crawford; Subs: Spencer, Gray, Smith G
I don't get out much nowadays, especially to The Grove so *b*Argus Ada*cb* kindly went through the team with me just after kickoff. Unfortunately he made a comment overheard by all the Jolly Boys that may haunt him for years - *b*"Giddings is an excellent player but I don't think he'll score many goals"*cb*. Well he may well be proved right, but on my first view I think it's safer to avoid the wrath of the mob by disagreeing with him.
It was probably the ideal start, an early goal to settle everyone's nerves and remind us of what's supposed to happen this year - we're going to win most of our games :-) Some nice passing, a cross to Giddings on the edge of the box and an overhead kick off his shin that looped over the keeper to flop into the net off the bar. Quality.
I'm not sure where Gresley are going to finish this year, but I thought they were pretty poor. Their passing was inaccurate and marking awful. We defended OK when we needed to with Skiddy cancelling his holiday to play at rightback and Neil Smith playing alongside Lee Collins for most of the game after Knight had gone off in the first minute (too early for me to see) with a suspected broken collar bone. Some of our play was a bit disjointed; not surprising seeing as it's almost a completely new side from last year, but there were some excellent passing movements that bode well for the rest of the year - assuming that these players stay for longer than a few weeks :-)
On with the report I suppose. Giddings' second was brilliant, running at their defence and smacking one in the corner from outside the box. Joyous celebrations followed, and even though they hit the post just before the break, everyone was in fine spirits as we hit the club shop to buy assorted rubbish at half-time.
Second half contined in much the same vein, once the ref had arrived after the half-time squitters. We passed it well without creating too many chances and they came into it a bit more, but a third from Giddings pretty much clinched it. It was almost identical to his second, a piledriver from outside the box leaving the keeper helpless. As I said on the home page, I don't think there can have been many better hat-tricks at The Grove, not in my memory anyway. They nearly scored when Tim Clarke was stranded off his line but we eventually cleared it and we trooped off to celebrate the night away. Hurrah!
One note of caution: no one had any ideas about a song for Mr Giddings. Does anything rhyme with his surname? This is going to take some work.