You don’t know what you’re doing…….

Starting XI: King, Halls, Newton, Tunnicliffe, Whitehead (Rowe), Hattersley, Collins (Meaney), Hobson, Fagbola, Mainwaring, Turnbull.
Subs: Ormson, Sheridan, Meaney, Rowe, Eckersley.

County started strongly and managed to equal Wrexham’s efforts in the first quarter. Wrexham had their first chance from a corner which was blasted wide by Andy Morell. On the back of this County had an excellent chance to go one up but didn’t take it as The Wrexham keeper made a great save to deny Hobson.

Harris had a chance for The Welsh side but couldn’t open the scoring, Lewis King saving well. The next chance fell to County as Paul Turnbull headed Newtons free kick wide of the target. The score still stood at 0-0.

It looked like Andy Morrell had put The Welsh side into the lead in the 20th minute but the goal was deemed offside as Andy Morrell was just past Tunnicliffe as the ball was played.
The 24th minute mark saw County go 1-0 into the lead through Danny Hattersley following a super cross from Sean Newton. Newton who Pure 107.8FM compared to the likes of the David Beckham of the non-league!

A County own goal provided Wrexham with the equaliser just two minutes later as Danny Wright’s corner was turned into the County net by Craig Hobson. Hobson this time scoring at the wrong end of the pitch! County 1 Wrexham 1.

Wing play from Newton and Collins could have put County into the lead with Hattersley and Hobson having their chances to impress in front of The Welsh following. but the Wrexham defence stayed strong and it was Wrexham to hit County where it hurt.

In the 36th minute County went 2-1 down with a dubious penalty decision where Wrexham were awarded a penalty for a push on Chris Westwood by Turnbull. Neil Ashton (if only I could swear) took the penalty and slotted it to the same side that Kingy dived. Ashton in his celebration went in front of The Cheadle End and celebrated to annoy The County fans. After this Ashton was booed at every touch of the ball.

HT: COUNTY 1 WREXHAM 2

Both teams were out except good old Neil Ashton, he wanted to make his appearance visible, coming out on to the pitch 2 minutes later than the rest of The Wrexham team. The result of which was that he was booed again.

King and Fagbola came to the County rescue in the first minute of the second half with King clearing a chance and Fagbola heading the ball away from the danger area. The game was very open with County trying to break through to get something from the game. It fell to the responsibility of the wingers of Whitehead and Collins to run at Wrexham’s defence but nothing could come of the chances that County made.

In the 65th minute another altercation with Neil Ashton occurred. With the game stopped, Ashton came over to The Cheadle End to talk to the fans. He responded to the abuse he recieved by shouting ‘Have a go if you think your hard enough’ making all the County fans in the Cheadle End question the referee’s responsibility and vision of the game. The ref brought Ashton over to the side and spoke to him and booked the left back. One minute later he was involved in another altercation with a County sub warming up, this time he shouted abuse at The Main Stand with Gannon getting furious it seemed that the referee did not have any grip on the game.
To me Ashton should have been sent off for this as he stopped play and was using threatening language and showing threatening behaviour, what else do you have to do to get sent off?

The referee made another wrong decision in the 72nd minute, he awarded Wrexham another penalty meaning that County went 3-1 down, Ashton stepped up to take the penalty which Kingy got a hand to, the ball could have gone anywhere but against County’s luck it went into the back of the net. Ashton went to celebrate in front of his fans, for this he was shown a second yellow card and was sent off.

With Wrexham down to 10 men County still faced a uphill battle having to pull back two goals. Hattersley gave County a chance in the 84th minute but it proved only to be a conciliation goal for The Hatters.

FT: COUNTY 2 WREXHAM 3 (Not deserved)
ATT: ATT 3,789 (718)

Vital Man Of The Match: Sean Newton

Vital Point of view: I feel that County matched the team that Gannon described as the best and most physical team in the league, with dubious refereeing decisions it makes you wonder what the score should have been . I have never seen a game where a player does not get sent off for acting ‘the hard man’ but gets sent off for celebrating with his own fans. #daft as anything.

It hurt to write this report as County deserved something from the game, but we have to take the positives and that was that County actually matched one of the best teams in the league. Hopefully this can be a tuning point for The Hatters to allow us to push on.

Animo et Fide