Hatters endure
AHORROR show of a second half saw County slip to a hugely frustrating 2-1 home defeat to lowly Bradford Park Avenue on Saturday - as The Hatters missed a penalty, before seeing their lead wiped out deep into stoppage time.
Kayode Odejayi’s wellplaced header had given County a first half lead somewhat against the run of play against the in-form visitors – currently on a run of four successive victories under new manager Mark Bower – but Danny Lloyd’s missed penalty sparked a late Edgeley Park turnaround.
Former Altrincham striker Emile Sinclair levelled for Avenue shortly after Lloyd’s penalty had cannoned against the crossbar, before centrehalf James Knowles strode into the Hatters half to drill a speculative effort at goal which deflected in off Michael Clarke to stun the home support.
For the first time this season, Gannon named an unchanged starting eleven from the side which started in last Tuesday night’s 1-0 win over Gainsborough; although the Hatters substitute bench looked stronger, with the return of fit-again Scott Duxbury and Josh Amis, both recovering from a concussion and a broken hand respectively.
Bower had clearly got his improving side playing possession football, with the Yorkshire club enjoying much of the ball in the opening exchanges – and leaving County struggling to get going.
Sinclair dragged an early effort well wide of Ben Hinchliffe’s goal, before former Hatter Oli Johnson raced past fullback Max Cartwright, before seeing his low cross hacked away from the lurking Sinclair.
Courtney Meppen-Walters came into the game on the back of two manof-the-match performances for The Hatters – but after a sluggish start all-round for the hosts, the former Chorley man was set to be sacrificed after just twenty-five minutes in place of Sam Minihan.
But, as Minihan readied on the sidelines, MeppenWalters featured in County’s opener – finding Danny Lloyd out wide on a Hatters counter-attack, before Lloyd crossed precisely onto the head of the waiting Odejayi to give County a perhaps undeserved lead.
Meppen-Walters earned a stay of execution after his part in Odejayi’s well-directed header, and County appeared to finally wake up with the halfhour mark approaching Lloyd chipped narrowly wide of the left post after an excellent Mark Ross through ball just moments later.
For all of Bradford’s dominance of possession, they had yet to really test Hinchliffe in the County goal – and the home side reached the interval with the visitors having failed to register an attempt on target.
Lloyd, who had claimed an astonishing eleventh assist of the season despite a largely quiet first half, found himself at the heart of controversy after the break in a frantic second forty-five minutes.
After another bright start to the half by Avenue, Minihan was eventually introduced in place of the struggling Gary Stopforth, who had complained of feeling short of breath minutes into the restart.
And it was Minihan who almost doubled the Hatters lead as Lloyd broke and played in the diminutive midfielder, who could only fire straight at Jon Worsnop in the Bradford goal.
But, with just over twenty minutes left on the clock, Lloyd spurned the biggest opportunity of the afternoon to seal the three points.
The former Fylde man was felled inside the area by defender Luke Dean with a penalty kick instantly awarded – but, rather incredulously, Lloyd failed to add to his ten goal haul already this season by blasting the