County got into the Halloween spirit by gifting Norwich City the three points at Edgeley Park today.
A much improved Hatters performance was all in vain as Gary Ablett’s side slipped to another home defeat in front of over 5000 at Edgeley Park.
Ablett opted for two up front with Peter Thompson partnering Nicholas Bignall in a 4-4-2.
Thompson looked bright early on and should have put County 1-0 up when Carl Baker slid a neat through ball through the Canaries back-line but Thompson could only poke his effort weakly at Fraser Forster’s legs and out for a corner.
And the lively Hatters start was all undone after 16 minutes when Michael Raynes made his weekly cock-up by passing the ball to Wes Hoolahan, and a resulting free-kick was dropped into the net by fon Williams via Grant Holt. 1-0.
And the young County side seem to be shot of any confidence when they get a kick in the teeth, though the three sides of County fans were doing their very best to lift the atmosphere.
To their credit, the youthful squad battled back well and in a second-half flurry of chances, Nicholas Bignall fired over from point blank range after a good ball in by Johnny Mullins, and Peter Thompson set up Carl Baker who couldn’t quite stay on his feet.
And again, a quick counter-attack made it 2-0 to the Canaries albeit controversially. Chris Martin (not the Coldplay singer) twisted inside Michael Rose and appeared to fall a bit too easily and dramatically under Paul Huntington’s challenge.
A penalty was awarded anyway, and Wesley Hoolahan stepped up to crash it past fon Williams for 2-0.
County battled back again though, and soon after they were back in with a shout.
Carl Baker turned inside Gary Doherty and rifled in a quite weak effort that took a wicked deflection off the unsuspecting Peter Thompson and trickled into the net.
The Cheadle End were galvanised and leading the charge yet again, and but for the consistently awful ref who denied a blatant handball shout when Nick Bignall’s effort smashed into Doherty’s raised arm but hey, why give a penalty when you’re waiting to celebrate Norwich’s third goal?
The Canaries broke yet again, and Michael Rose conceded possession far too easily to sub Cody McDonald who had time to pick out Grant Holt at the far stick for his second of the game.
Game over.
So another EP defeat for Gary Ablett’s men but a heartening performance from the youngsters.
And who knows, if we can once and for all cut out the silly mistakes, we may be OK. With the fight and spirit we showed today against supposedly stronger opposition, with a bit of luck and an actually competent referee for once, we can survive this.
Come on County.
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I wasn’t there so can’t comment on the two penalty decisions but for this exercise we’ll assume you’re right (and not being biased).
Your goal came off Thompson, who was offside. Thus, should have been disallowed.
So, going by that. Take off our penalty goal, take off your offside goal and add a penalty goal to you. We’d still have won 2-1. Yeah, it doesn’t work like that but you get my drift.
If the referee was bad, he was bad for both sides. I recall a couple of chances in the first half where had he played the advantage we could have extended our lead (very much against the run of play admittedly).
Cutting out the biased and bitter rubbish, you were the better side today. We didn’t play well at all but came away with three points. We played very well at Leeds and went home empty handed, so I know how you feel. Gutting but keep the faith, you’ll get your rewards.
Good luck for the rest of the season (excluding the return fixture at Carrow Road obviously).
I am biased, yep. But your lad Martin going down like he’d been snipered was pathetic. And ours was a blatant handball, stick Footy League Show on tonight and they might show it as the build up to your third. I did say ‘the ref was consistently awful’, never said he was only awful for us. There was an incident when one of our lads lamped Chris Martin for going down to win the penalty, and he wasn’t even booked despite getting him right in the chops. And I’d argue that the ref was awful for you BECAUSE he was awful for us, rather than ‘as well as’. Every bad decision he gave your way, he was jeered by our fans so he gave a bad decision our way. That’s ***** FL refs for you. Far too fan-influenced. Yep, you looked a well organised side regardless, Hoolahan was tricky as well. Good luck.
Wish I could share your optimism ed but I think the writing is on the wall without money in to strengthen. A better perfromance but sooner or later we are going to go through an ‘iffy’ patch and with the squad we have at the moment that means a few tonkings. Suspensions are going to kick in soon too.
I can see us relegated in May, still in administration and the real threat of losing our league status the year after. Tell me I am too pessimistic please! I O County whatever comes though.
You’re too pessimistic! 😉 I think if we can strengthen in vital areas, Ablett can work his magic and we may be OK, let’s face it – we’re better than 4 other teams in this league. Anyway, talks of a demo in the Main Stand next week. Non-violent of course. Whose up for it?!
Just goes to show that no result is a given in the league, as it took a fantastic save from our keeper to keep you out 1st half, and obviously your keeper made a meal of Lappin’s cross. It was tough on that pitch for us, but in truth you had your chances and good to see the support even at 0 2, that’s what will see you good eventually.
Demo in the Main Stand! Shocking! Who is the demo aimed at, the administrator? Can’t see it doing much good. Now… a mass ‘late arrival’ at the ground would be something. Kick off with just a thousand inside for the first 5 minutes and then everyone takes their seats. Mind you… we might only get 2000 for the FA Cup game anyway. Its all utterly, utterly depressing. Roll on Mark Maguire new club owner…. *dangles bait *