Gaffer laments harsh leveller
HATTERS boss Jim Gannon was left to rue an ‘undeserved’ late equaliser on Saturday, as struggling Alfreton held County to a 1-1 draw in the National League North.
Looking set to grind out yet another three points on the road after Josh Amis’ fifth goal of the season had carved out a 1-0 lead, Liam Hearn’s stoppage time leveller pegged back Gannon’s promotion challengers – despite the late strike being surrounded by controversy.
Lewis Montrose had shielded the ball out for a seemingly obvious goal kick to the leading visitors, but the officials contrived to award the hosts a corner.
The resulting set-piece resulted in a goalmouth scramble which was con- verted by Hearn, with Gannon and company left seething from the apparent late injustice; with the two dropped points knocking County out of the play-off positions.
“I don’t think a draw was fair,” lamented Gannon.
“Alfreton have imposed themselves physically on us and worked hard, but they haven’t tested Ben Hinchliffe enough – and the referee’s given them an assist for their eventual goal. But we had chances throughout with which we should have tested their goalkeeper more often, and perhaps then we would have been in a position to take more than we did from the game.
“Lewis Montrose has shepherded the ball out, and then for some reason the linesman has decided that Lewis has shielded the ball out behind his own touchline for a corner – it just doesn’t make sense.
“But leaving that aside, we should never put ourselves in a position whereby a refereeing decision or a bit of physical pressure sees us concede a goal and drop points.
“We’ve been working on getting crosses into the right areas and getting our attackers arriving at the right time. There were plenty of crosses on Saturday which didn’t end up where we’d like though, and I think if we had have achieved that, we’d have asked a lot more questions of Alfreton.
“I thought overall we did well, we played some nice football in the first half and created chances. But we were slightly overindulgent at times, playing some poor and sloppy football in the second half when really we should have been asking more questions of the back four. But we’re still a work in progress.”
County were also left exasperated by the officials penalising The Hatters in the opposition’s penalty area late on, only to allow what Gannon described as a “melee” at the other end as his side eventually conceded.
“Josh Amis has got a really bad gash across his ankle. It’s a terrible challenge, and it’s interesting that challenges like that, which can seriously injure people, are only bookings. We should have doubled our lead from that incident, and Josh has come out of it with a bad cut.
“I thought the referee gave them quite a few soft free-kicks, and we had the incident where we put a corner into the box which is blown for a foul which nobody else has seen, only for him to allow the madness of all the pushing and shoving at the other end for their goal which everybody has seen.”
All attention now turns to the visit of FC United of Manchester, who travel to Edgeley Park this weekend having just been the victims of a dramatic Chorley comeback, from three goals down at Broadhurst Park to claim a 3-3 draw.
The home tie against County’s struggling neighbours kickstarts what Gannon recognised as an “extremely challenging” test for his play-off hopefuls, with trips to the likes of AFC Fylde, Salford City and Kidderminster still to come.
He added: “We’ve still got players who are not fully understanding their roles, especially in what we want from set-plays and what we want from crosses, but we’ll work hard on the training pitch heading into a local derby and a tough month of football for us.”