The Tigers were down to the bare bones through injuries and COVID with reserve keeper Bradley Waters among those coming into a side that only named two outfield substitutes.
And they looked like sliding to a heavy defeat after falling 3-0 down in the opening 25 minutes.
Holbeach boss Danny Clifton said his side hadn’t reckoned on the long throw-ins of Gresley’s Alby Lansdowne.
Defender Mason Frizelle bundled home Gresley’s opener after the Tigers failed to clear the ball after eight minutes.
He turned provider for the second, knocking the ball back to Shay Brennan to hit a fine strike on 17 minutes.
And it was 3-0 when Brennan raced on to a long ball over the top to provide James Harrison with a simple finish.
The Tigers responded impressively by scoring two goals in two minutes.
Firstly on the half hour mark Harvey Wirkowski was brought down in the area and he dusted himself off to score from spot.
Moments later it was his ball in from the right that was met by Ethan Camfield.
Gresley had rested a handful of players and with the game in the balance brought those on in the second half.
While Clifton and the opposition praised the performance of stand-in keeper Waters, Holbeach too had their moments.
The Holbeach manager felt his side didn’t get the rub of the green when Sam Harris was shoulder-to-shoulder with the last defender who went down and earned a free kick.
But Gresley made the game safe in the 75th minute through Brennan and rounded off the 5-2 win through Danny Munday.
“We had a game plan and it worked for 75 minutes,” Clifton said. “We went there to be hard to beat and then look to hit them on the counter with the ball.
“It worked perfectly to plan, apart from one thing we hadn’t worked on; a player who was able to throw the ball 60 yards.
“Those first three goals came from those big throw ins we didn’t deal with.
“Then we got a penalty which Harvey scored and he put in an amazing cross for Ethan to get his first ever goal for the club.
“The fourth goal absolutely killed us. We put everything in to getting the equaliser so to then fall two behind again finished it.”
Tigers: Waters, Carter, Wilson, Gilbert, Nuttell, Warrington, Catt, Camfield, Harris, Wirkowski, Radic, Chaudhari, Simpson.
Attendance: 450.
