Ian Brown was one of the Hatters who followed County on their 2004 Chinese tour.
Part 3 of his 5 part series is published below.
(Part 1 can be found here and Part 2 can be found here)
—————————————————–
County made more history upon taking the field for the third match of the tour,when they became the first foreign team to play at the Peoples Stadium in Tieling.
It was the second and final meeting between County and Laioning Tiger Star, and everyone was looking forward to it, if viewing the events through bleary eyes.
Laioning Tiger Star v County 16 May 2004
It turned out to be one of those days for the Hatters who managed to score 4 goals in open play.
Unfortunately 2 of the aforementioned goals went past their own keeper.
They did however manage to rescue the game by winning the penalty shoot out 6/3 so saving face.
A fairly strong line up should have been good enough to win the game comfortably even taking into account Tiger Stars increased desire to win, but unfortunately with a couple of notable exceptions the Cheshire side were in a slothful mood.
County were one up within 15 minutes of kick off though, as a knockdown courtesy of Byrne allowed Goodwin to slot the opener home.
It was disheartening to see the ball nestling in the County net 7 minutes later as Meadowcroft, under no pressure, lobbed his keeper from 30 yards as the crowd howled with delight.
With 77 minutes gone County thought the game was over as Ashley Williams headed in from close range but with time running out another visit to Calamity City was added to the tour itinerary as Damien Allen beat Spencer with a reflex prod that leveled the scores.
Tiger Star were rejuvenated and in truth the County team were lucky not to lose out, hanging on to take the honours with a 6/3 penalty shoot out.
County team : Spencer,Hardiker , A Williams, Meadowcroft , Adams, Morrison, Lambert, Goodwin, Jackman, Byrne, Daly.
Ian Brown
(you can read more on Ian’s site http://hedgegrower.blogspot.com and see the photos)
—————————-
Once again thank you to the County faithful who browse this Vital County site. In the last quarter, just by visiting you have raised £90 for Help The Hatters (which is up from the £65 the quarter before). Please encourage your County buddies to visit Vital County and let’s see if we can break the £100 mark and further boost the Help The Hatters coffers!)
Cropped
Share this article
Related Articles
