County advance in 8 goal thriller

Stockport County advanced to the First Round of the FA Cup after beating local rivals Stalybridge Celtic in a 8 goal thriller yesterday at Edgeley Park.

Danny Hattersley was rushed to hospital after he went down injured inside the first minute, he was briefly unconscious and had an irregular heart beat. However he was, thankfully, released last night with a clean bill of health.

Craig Hobson gave County the lead with a powerful strike than Cairns couldn’t keep out, a weak hand saw it trickle over the line.

Danny Whitehead extended the lead, before Danny Rowe fired him a beauty from 30 yards into the top corner. It was ala the Rowe from last season.

At that point you could have been forgiven for thinking it was game over, but when Jack Laird pushed his way, somehow, between Tunnicliffe and Fagbola and finishing well he brought it back to 3-1.

And when the referee awarded Stalybridge a soft penalty minutes later, they could have been going into half time trailing only by 1 goal. However Ian Ormson had something to say about that, he brilliantly saved from Pepper to his left hand side at full stretch.

In the second half County won a penalty of their own, Hobson going down in a similar fashion to the penalty Wrexham won at Edgeley Park the other week. This time Sean Newton made no mistake in firing home well to make it 4-1.

But Gregory again responded for Celtic, he picked the ball up after poor defending from Joe Connor and placed the ball into the bottom corner. Ormson may have been out of position for that one but it was a good strike.

Sheridan made it 5-2 with a well worked individual goal, before Laird beautifully curled into the top corner.

County advance through to the First Round for the first time since becoming a ‘Non-League’ club.