UP NEXT, after a fantastic midweek away trip to AFC Mansfield, the first team are on their travels again as they visit Gresley Rovers in the league.

Kimberley will look to build on their midweek victory over AFC Mansfield and take three points to put themselves six points better off than the same time last season and hopefully make this season a lot more enjoyable than last term.

Gresley Rovers will be in the same mood as Kimberley, wanting to give themselves a much better chance in the league than last season, when they survived relegation by goal difference. A steady start sees them sitting in mid-table after four matches

On Tuesday evening, Kimberley travelled to face last season’s play off semi finalists, AFC Mansfield. Two goals from Kole Lambert demonstrated the miners’ dominance in a 2-0 victory that really could have been more. A great performance from the team in white and green.

Gresley Rovers’ last match was a 3-1 away defeat to Hucknall Town. The home side led at half time through Niall Towle. Lewis Belgrave and Bradley Wells took the result away from Gresley before Ryan King grabbed a consolation midway through the second half.

LAST TIME AROUND

The last visit to Gresley was in October last year. A first half opening goal from Nat Peters was all the miners had to show in a 4-1 defeat after what had become a typical collapse for that stage of last season.

The two sides met in the second fixture of the season at The Stag Ground. Kimberley were dominant and totally in control of the game at half time. Goals from Paul Johnson and a brace from Lewis Weaver should’ve had the game dead and buried. In the second half, roles reversed as Gresley took the game to Kimberley. Jamie Sleigh, Fin Baker and Dan Munday dragged Gresley back into the match and were good for a point. Final score was 3-3.

A LITTLE ABOUT THE OPPOSITION

Gresley FC was formed in 2009 and enjoyed a very successful first season in the East Midlands Counties League. The side, managed by Gary Norton, finished as runners up and therefore narrowly missed out on promotion. Gresley also enjoyed a long run in the FA Vase by beating Spennymoor, Dawlish and Long Buckby. The Dawlish tie in particular will live long in the memory as the original tie was abandoned in extra time and the Moatmen won the replay in South Derbyshire on penalties. The Vase run came to an end in front of the home fans in disappointing fashion at home to Whitehawk in the quarter-finals.

New Directors joined the club looking to turn the dream of moving to a new stadium into a reality.

Manager Gary Norton and his assistant Martin Rowe invited Martyn Rowntree to step up from the reserves to become first team coach.

2010-2011 Gresley's second season as a club and also their second in the East Midlands Counties League saw another good FA Vase run getting to the last 32 and then going one step further from the previous season by winning the league after an exciting run-in. Being a few points behind the leading contenders Gresley could not afford to slip up again after an unexpected home defeat in early January if their dreams were to be realised. An amazing 20 game unbeaten run with the final 8 all victories saw Gresley crowned as champions and promoted into the Midland Football Alliance.

Season 2011-2012 saw another good run in the FA Vase reaching the last 16 and to top off a superb season Gresley achieved a remarkable back-to-back title success as they lifted the Midland Football Alliance title at their first attempt and promotion to the Evo-Stik NPL Division One South. The first season back at level four was successful as Gresley settled into the Division One South. Gresley finished just outside the top ten in the league and reached the 3rd Qualifying round of the FA Cup. At the end of the season joint manager Gary Norton stepped down with Martin Rowe named as manager.

After losing their first two league fixtures of 2013-2014 and then an indifferent spell up to Christmas Gresley managed to stabilise their performances and ended the season in a creditable 9th place. However, in both the FA Cup and FA Trophy Gresley had good runs going out of the cup after forcing Conference South outfit Brackley Town to a replay after a good draw at St James Park in the 2nd Qualifying Round and in the Trophy they took Conference Premier side Wrexham almost all the way in the First Round Proper losing by the odd goal in three at the Racecourse Ground. In September 2014 Martin Rowe resigned and his assistant Wayne Thornhill was appointed as first team manager at the end of October.

Wayne, along with his assistants Jamie Barrett and Russell Peel, turned the season around and they finished in a creditable fifth place making the play-offs where they met Leek Town at Harrison Park who narrowly beat the Moatmen by a single goal. An appearance in the Derbyshire Senior Cup Final at the home of Chesterfield FC ended with Gresley as runners-up losing to Evo-Stik Premier side Matlock Town. At the beginning of September Wayne stepped down and Dave Langston appointed as caretaker manager. In October Scott Goodwin was appointed as manager with Jamie Barrett and Gary Rickets as his assistants. After a disappointing run of defeats Scott was released and Gary Ricketts appointed as player/manager assisted by Jamie Barrett and Dave Langston. The 2015-2016 ended with Gresley in a disappointing 16th position. Ricketts stood down as manager and former Leicester Nirvana manager Damion Beckford-Quailey appointed in the close season. Damion’s first season started well but the loss of three key players around Christmas time saw his side struggle for the rest of the campaign finishing in 18th position.

His second season, 2017-2018 was not much better but it ended in a disappointing manner when the manager, management team and most of the players left the club with just four games remaining and the danger of being relegated. Former Moat boss Gary Norton stepped in to steer the club to the end of a trying season and using a mixture of reserve and youth team players managed to keep the club in step 4 finishing 17th. Norton agreed to take on the role of manager for season 2018-2019 and along with assistant Carl Slater and player/coach Jamie Barrett have started to rebuild a side that hopefully be more competitive than the last two seasons.

Early in January 2019 Norton stood down and Gavin Hurren was appointed as manager. Unfortunately, at the end of the season, Gresley were relegated from the Evo-Stik East to the Midland League. Hurren left early in the new season to be replaced by David McDermott.

Gresley’s results failed to improve and in February McDermott was relieved of his position. Former manager Gary Norton again stepped in to steer the ship until the end of the season.

Gresley Rovers Return

During the summer of 2020, the Gresley FC board met to discuss the possibility of re-naming the club and a unanimous decision saw the Gresley Rovers name return to non-league football. Joint managers of Carl Abbott, Gary Norton and assistant manager Paul Thomlinson will now have the job of recruiting their players after the previous season was curtailed due to the Covid-19 pandemic and non-league football allowed to start again.

FINALLY

The lads will look forward to having the ultras back with them this weekend

Kick off is at 15:00