Late agony
spot-kick against crossbar and away.
Gannon was left to rue “the fine margins of football” after the game, knowing that a successful penalty from Lloyd would have all but sealed a comfortable victory for the hosts; yet within two minutes of the missed attempt, Avenue were level.
It was Dean who found himself roaming forward for the away side, and Sinclair found too much room to clip over the advancing Hinchliffe for a leveller which was the appearing less and less likely to come.
And after one penalty award in the game, the real controversy began when Lloyd went to ground moments later – despite huge appeals from the home side, referee Paul Newhouse gestured that Lloyd had been tripped by teammate Kay Odejayi.
Bizarrely, Lloyd jumped straight back up to reclaim the loose ball – and was then clumsily pushed to the ground by Dean, with a penalty again denied.
Odejayi headed over from a pinpoint Cartwright cross, but as the majority of the 3,200 inside the chilly stadium waited on a Hatters winner, Avenue struck a late blow.
Two points dropped soon became all three, when Knowles bundled the ball past Lewis Montrose and Meppen-Walters to try his luck from long range, well into the four allotted minutes of stoppage time.
Defender Clarke rushed out to block, but the shot would only deflect cruelly off the former Northwich man to leave Hinchliffe helpless – with no time left on the clock for the home side to respond.
Gannon reflected afterwards that the equaliser had disheartened him more than the late winner, but after the biggest attendance in all of nonleague last weekend had watched on from the stands at Edgeley Park, the Hatters chief will be hoping that the demoralising defeat won’t be a killer blow to County’s season.
County were due to travel to promotion hopefuls Tamworth on Tuesday night as the Express went to print, with a potential defeat leaving The Hatters ten points behind their opponents; but with Gannon and company knowing that an impressive win would breathe new life into County’s campaign.