Tide turns on Gannon?

Stockport County turned in yet another awful home performance as the fifth home defeat on the trot was notched up.

Surely time must be close to up for Jim Gannon now, and in my view he should have already gone. County have just had 10 days off since the Bradford game, so there was no excuses for the starting line up last night.

Gannon went back to Tansey and Turnbull in midfield after Taylor and Briggs had played well at Bradford. Taylor went to right back, McNeil wasn’t even in the squad, Elding and Dickinson stayed up front. Griffin came back in on the left wing for Rowe.

County lacked any sort of direction, though were stronger in the first half.

Lincoln looked dodgy at the back, and Dickinson had a chance when he got in behind the defence. Hone tripped over, and Dickinson proceded to put the ball in the net. However the referee judged that Dickinson had infact fouled Hone despite him clearly tripping over.

Minutes later Dickinson had the ball at his feet and nobody in front of him, however he decided to pass it to Elding and then move into an offside position. Meaning County messed up a good two on one opportunity.

The most controversial moment of the first half was when Adam Griffin was booked for taking a quick free kick. I didn’t realise this was an offence.

Dickinson then put Poole through, and he schould have scored, but put his shot wide.

Lincoln played well and kept the ball well, but were lacking any serious final ball in the first half. The report kind of makes it out to be all County, but Lincoln never had any real chances in the first half.

But that was to change just five minutes into the second half, when N’Guessan mishit a cross, but it was heading goalwards and Logan had to scramble back and punch it from under his bar. Jason Taylor fell asleep at right back, and Ben Wright volleyed home from a tight angle to give Lincoln the lead.

And it was two to Lincoln just moments later, again Taylor failed to do his job at right back as Warlow made space to put a fantastic cross into the box. Wright turned and volleyed home first time into the bottom corner, 2-0 to Lincoln.

Frustration was building up throughout this and Gannon just stood their montionless leaning against the advertising boards.

He did, however, make three changes – and they were all the wrong changes in my eyes. Elding, Tansey and Rose came off to be replaced by Proudlock, Briggs and Rowe. County were to stay at 4-4-2 for the last half hour.

However County were soon down to ten men when Adam Proudlock went in for a 50-50 challenge with a Lincoln player, the referee produced a straight red card to the amazement of the County players and some of the Lincoln players.

Jim Gannon then tried to get a message to his players but they all just stood there looking confused, pointing at themselves, others and looking into space. David Poole went upfront, Jason Taylor went onto the right wing, whilst it looked like Adam Griffin and Tommy Rowe were both on the left wing.

But County managed to pull a goal back, David Poole got on the end of Logan’s long punt forward, and his shot was well saved by Smith, but Dickinson followed up with a shot into the top corner to make it 2-1 with 8 minutes to go.

However Lincoln perfectly caught County out on the break, John-Lewis getting his first ever Football League goal with a cool, calm finish, one of which you would expect to see from a much older player. He approached the penalty area with the goal at his bay and beautifully just chipped the ball over Logan. 3-1 to Lincoln, game over.

Fans started taking their frustrations out on Jim Gannon, and rightly so. I myself told Gannon what I thought in no uncertain terms, as did many offers. As the final whistle went three-quarters of the crowd had left and only the few who can’t see beyond their blinkers applauded the performance which was awfully shocking.

Lincoln fully deserved to be taking three points back to Sincil Bank with them.

How long for Gannon now? Hopefully not long.

Manager Rating
Clueless. Rubbish. Resign.