Through His Legs It Goes.

The ‘Twelfth Men` were well untruly back with 4500+at Edgeley park with the high expectation of the ‘legends` return to County in a game against high flying Southport. With the chorus of ‘Jimmy Gannon`s Blue n White Army` serenading around Edgeley Park as the players entered the pitch it seemed a perfect day for county to finally beat the odds and beat a high flying team.

County started with Halstead, Halls O`Donnell, Bounab, Holden, McConville, Nolan, Blackburn, Paton, Elliot and Elliot. The team facing Southport saw three changes from last weeks team that lost at table topping Fleetwood with Halstead staying in the side through the injury of Matt Glennon.

After only five minutes the referee turned into what seemed to be County`s best friend as what can only be described as a gift to County through the sending off of Southport midfielder Shaun Whalley for a professional foul on county keeper Halstead. With County having a one man advantage the atmosphere around the ground became one of the past with the echoing of ‘There is only one Jimbo`

This upbeat atmosphere was soon dampened half way through the first half with County`s passing football getting increasingly frustrating with no more than three passes being complete before loosing the ball to 10 man Southport. With the Blue and White army knocking up 65% of the possession by half time this did not seem to be enough to get past a passionate Southport side, with the two teams going in at half time with the score at 0-0.

The second half started with a County substitution with Michael Paton as he seemed to struggle to make any impact in the first half therefore Paton made way for County`s new boy Aaron Cole. With Brown only on the pitch a matter of seconds he showed signs of what could be a wonder sub through his first touch skinning two Southport players before putting a wonderful floating ball in front of Antonio German who could not find the net.

The County fans frustration could soon be heard around Edgeley Park with the expectations of Jim`s boys evidently being too much for them to handle. Jim joined the County fans with his frustration as he looked shocked at what was happening on the field in front of him, with misleading passing and ill positioning leading to Southport becoming more and more threatening.

With the County players looking some what dilapidated on the 74th minute Southport took the lead through Karl Ledsham after a goalkeeping howler from on loan keeper Halstead with a simple shot going through his legs and into the back of the Stockport net.

With the look of shock on the players and fans faces after somewhat the worst goalkeeping blunder I have ever seen a uphill battle faced the county boys with a quarter of the game still to be played. With Jim wanting a result against 10 man Southport he dealt he played a ace through the introduction of veteran striker Martin Gritton as he replaced Andy Halls, following this substitution ‘The Ghosts` men played a 3-4-3 formation in order to try and regain something from the game. Despite the attacking change County`s afternoon seemed to go even more down hill as the players looked more and more helpless the fans frustration was heard.

With 85 minutes played Southport should have made it 2-0 and put the game out of reach of the Hatters through a counter attack that saw Southport`s goal scorer Karl Ledsham missing a open net.

As the final whistle was blown a crackle of boo`s were heard around Edgeley Park. In the post match interview Jim made his opinion of the teams efforts very clear through throwing a diplomacy brick in the faces of what County call professional a professional football team with the Footballing director clearly stating that he knows who wants to play for the club through their performances on the pitch and that he would be more than prepared to turn to the youth in the team if it was needed.

In my opinion County need to toughen up before a hard away trip to Grimsby on Tuesday night, if County loose on Tuesday they face danger of dropping into the relegation zone for the first time this season and facing a relegation battle something of which we are already in. Maybe through the introduction of youth players into the squad like Cameron Darkwar and Danny Whitehead might help the squad as from the performance seen by the County following today was abysmal after not looking like they could find the net through their current strike force. The biggest asset to the team currently is Matt Glennon and his injury has defiantly hurt the team with his return vital as the covering goalkeeper Halsted`s mistake costing County the game today.

Onwards and upwards is all we can say but I have a feeling like many others that the second half of the season will be a very long one.