Brilliant County Show Bouncebackability!

County surprised promotion hopefuls Bury at Gigg Lane yesterday with a magnificently efficient performance in front of around 1400 County fans.

A 15th minute well-worked goal by on-loan striker (and Man of the Match) Wesleigh Fletcher was the only goal of the tie and enough to give The Hatters the three points and move us up to 16th in the table. Just 6 points off the play-offs and 5 points off the bottom two. Odd league.

It was the ‘County reject!’ Ryan Lowe who went closest in the opening stages, tussling with young defender Jordan Rose to find some space in the box, but Rose did well and swept the ball out away from Lowe and away from danger.

Rose then went down after an awkward landing from an aerial challenge, and Rodger Wylde was summonsed and had to treat the youngster – who had been knocked unconscious – for quite a while.

As the break in play began, it was time for the away fans to have our fun. Chants of ‘Rochdale, give us a song!’ and ‘Rochdale, what’s the score?!’ served only to increasingly wind up the Bury fans adjacent to the away stand, and a minute later a certain home supporter donning a pink t-shirt was the subject of the Hatters fans abuse.

Back to the action and incredibly and to his credit, young Rose continued and refused to be substituted after his knock to the head – it showed remarkable resolve from the former Weymouth man after being part of a back four that had conceded ten goals in the past two league games (and taking a lot of stick in the process.)

Just a few minutes later though, Fletcher struck to send the fans wild. A very good team goal it has to be said as well.

The once-again solid Adam Griffin exchanged passes with George Donnelly on the far left-hand side before looking up and, to his surprise, finding the 19-year-old forward standing in the middle of the penalty area all on his own. Griffin duly pinged the ball into Fletcher’s feet, and the youngster was equally as surprised, but sorted his feet out and turned Efe Sodje inside out before rolling the ball past the novice Bury ‘keeper. Bizarre defending, but a very good goal.

There has been other away wins this season of course, at Macclesfield and Oxford. But this one, at Gigg Lane, this one was fully deserved. Whereas the other two were perhaps lucky and more down to poor finishing from the opposition than anything else, the victory over the 3rd-placed Shakers was all down to us. As a team, as a club.

Paul Turnbull and boss Simpson commented afterwards how the fan singing and outsinging the home support always drives the lads on when they’re perhaps waning a bit. Well it certainly helped them yesterday then, even under a sustained bit of pressure from the hosts that was weathered commendably from the partnership of Assoumani and Rose, with Matty Glennon looking as good as ever behind them.

And we could have had two or three. As it was, it stayed 1-0 and looked the perfect scoreline for the media to call it a ‘smash-and-grab’, nicking a goal and stealing a win over the high-flyers. We dominated.

Fletcher again could have scored, this time in front of the away contingent. The very nervous Bury keeper Branigan, being jeered every time he touched the ball by the County fans, sliced his clearance straight to skipper Turnbull, who defied the chants of ‘SHOOT!’ and slipped a lovely ball through to Fletcher, who caught the defence cold and was through on goal. He raced clear and agonisingly fired his shot past the left-hand post.

Jake Simpson, fresh from jury service, and Greg Tansey were brought on in midfield to help contain the attacking threat, but it was Simpson who nearly sealed the win with ten minutes to go.

Donnelly,on a bit of a goal drought himself, produced magnificent pace down the left-wing and absolutely skinned Sodje, who was given nightmares by Don and Fletcher all match. The County number 10 flung in a wicked cross with his left weak foot and the arriving Simpson was unmarked but smashed his header against the post.

Glennon was called into action again and he got his body behind Nicky Ajose’s shot and parried it away from the lurking Lowe, serving to give all County fans a heart attack.

We held out after what seemed like 50 minutes of stoppage time, and the scenes at the full-time whistle saw Simpson and Ward punching the air and celebrating with the travelling fans, and Paul Turnbull leading his exhausted team over to the 1400-strong support for the rounds of applause.

Up to 16th, and Peterborough on Tuesday night, who were beaten 5-1 at home by Charlton. So it’s either a backlash from them, or we beat a team on a downward spiral…Hmm. But for now, we can enjoy the win and all us who walked the 18 miles to Gigg Lane can feel like it was worth the aching muscles!