County squander lead to Lincoln

Stockport County found themselves walking away from Sincil Bank on Saturday afternoon with a point, but it was so nearly another three away points.
Going into the game County would have accepted a point beforehand – draw your away games and win your home games being the motto of many.
County went into the game without their main man upfront Danny Hattersley, after having an injury scare last weekend against Stalybridge he wasn`t going to be risked this afternoon. Craig Hobson was to lead the line upfront on his own, with support coming from Danny Whitehead and an extra man in Sam Sheridan going into the midfield.
Early on County had the best chance when a ball was bouncing around in the Lincoln area, Hobson got his foot in front of the Lincoln defender and connected with the ball on the volley – only for it to go narrowly over the bar.
Taylor should have put Lincoln ahead though at the other end, he rounded County keeper Ian Ormson who had come charging out of his goal, but a brilliant diving stop at full length from Andy Halls stopped the ball from finding the back of the net.
Eventually Lincoln got the goal they deserved for their first half domination though, Jake Sheridan had far too much room on the right hand side and wasn`t closed down, he was allowed to cross and this time Taylor did find the back of the net with a well placed header.
Whether the fact Andy Halls didn`t close down Sheridan was the reason for his substitution is not clear, but Halls and Sam Sheridan were hauled off at half time, replaced by Joe Connor and Tom Collins.
Connor went to centre-half, with Fagbola moving to right back and Collins provided Hobson with more support upfront.
And it was the two men on the right hand side who combined to level for County, a Tom Collins corner was headed back across goal by James Tunnicliffe and Fagbola powerfully headed towards goal – the ball clearly two yards over the line and the linesmen doing well to see from a low angle awarded the goal.
How County didn`t go down to ten men in the second half was astonishing, the first of the ‘red card` chances came when Ormson brought down Alan Power as he was one-on-one with the County keeper. Ormson was given neither the red nor yellow and stayed on the pitch to try and stop the penalty. He could have been off the pitch, as County didn`t require a goalkeeper as Power blasted the ball over the cross bar and nearly clearing the stands. Chants of ‘Sale, Sale` from the County fans showed their view of proceedings.
Brilliant work from Tom Collins at the other end, as he brought down a high ball, beat three men and then found Craig Hobson in a great position meant Hobson could give County the lead and hope of another win on the road for Jim Gannon`s men.
But moments later it was level again as a cheap free kick given away by Danny Whitehead meant Nutter could use his wizardry like left foot to place the ball into the bottom corner from 25 yards out – 2-2.
The second chance of a County red card came when Turnbull was competing for a ball and saw fit to raise his arms for no reason at the Lincoln defender, it looked as though Turnbull was winding the Lincoln player up constantly for a while and Turnbull managed to buy himself and the opposition player a yellow card – if the referee was aware of what was going on he could have sent Turnbull for an early bath.
To rub salt into the wounds another great Tom Collins corner kick was flicked on by Kenyon at the near post and Turnbull, the villain just two minutes earlier, produced a spectacular overhead kick to put County back into the lead with 15 minutes to go.
Matty Mainwairing saw only yellow too as his tasty challenge on Oliver brought us an occasion off mass handbags as 20 players had a pushing session for a minute or so – again though the referee deemed the tackle ok and only showed the yellow card to Mainwairing.
With County 3-2 up any County fan knew what was about to happen – Gannon`s teams usually sit back and soak up pressure and for the next ten minutes County were camped in their own half, valiantly defending anything that came into the box and not looking like conceding a goal.
But in the 93rd minute Tom Collins didn`t clear the ball properly and gave Lincoln a chance with County unorganised at the back. An initial shot was blocked by Jamie Taylor came flying in and his low effort when through a pile of diving County bodies and into the bottom corner – Lincoln had equalised and it was 3-3.
This one quote from Lincoln manager David Holdsworth sums the game up, from the Lincoln side of things anyway, “‘But I think the performance of someone who wasn’t in our colours had a big effect. There were incidents which changed the game. I respect the officials but the opposition keeper should have been sent off.”