Away day blues
ADEPLETED County fell to a 3-1 defeat at Tamworth on Bank Holiday Monday, handing The Hatters their third away defeat in four so far this season.
Despite Sam Minihan giving the visitors an early lead with a tidy finish, Bradley Reid soon levelled for the hosts before a second half brace by forward Reece Styche condemned Jim Gannon’s injury-hit squad to a first defeat in three.
With no fewer than six members of the squad unavailable through five injuries and the unavailability of midfielder Gary Stopforth due to international clearance not yet received, Gannon was forced into making two changes from the side which had bested Gainsborough two days earlier.
Goalscorer Jason Oswell was one of the stricken players who missed out, whilst Ben McKenna – who assisted Oswell for the winner in the Gainsborough clash – also missed out.
Both players picked up injuries in the build up to Oswell’s seventh goal of the season on Saturday.
The visitors started strongly in search of their third successive win, with wing-back Minihan racing onto a Jimmy Ball pass to slot past Tom Rowley in the Tamworth goal.
The Hatters earned the accolade of the best defence in the division last season, with Michael Clarke and Chris Smalley backed by goalkeeper Ben Hinchliffe – but the Hatters backline has been breached ten times so far this season, and was done so again on the ten minute mark at the Lamb Ground.
In a carbon copy of County’s opener, midfielder Ellis Deeney found Darryl Knights, whose through-ball was bundled home by Bradley Reid – and, after a frantic opening, both sides settled into the game.
Hinchliffe was tested on a couple of occasions, but comfortably caught Styche’s downward header, as well as a longrange drive from former County midfielder Aman Verma – who spent a five month spell at Edgeley Park back in 2013.
After a fraught opening half, County almost snuck back into the lead when captain Michael Clarke – deputising in Harry Winter’s absence, with the County captain one of the six hit by injury – headed firmly at goal from a Sam Walker corner, only for Deeney to hack desperately off the line.
In a familiar tale for County and their 405 travelling supporters, Gannon’s men won a staggering eleven corners but failed to threaten with the majority – and the pattern continued with two set pieces in quick succession spurned after the interval.
Hinchliffe, who looked The Hatters’ best performer in a rather dour second half, was forced into action again, tipping behind successive long range strikes by Verma and Deeney – before target man Styche, a thorn in County’s side all afternoon, struck the two fatal blows.
With 14 minutes left on the clock, Smalley sliced a clearance to the edge of the area where Styche was waiting to power home via a deflection off the County defender – before Clarke tripped Styche in stoppage time, leaving the Tamworth striker to rifle home the resulting penalty.
In an outing which seemed set to end in stalemate between two evenlymatched teams, two late errors by County’s usually reliable defence sent The Hatters home empty handed – and leaves Gannon’s side with a tough Edgeley Park double header coming this weekend against Bradford PA and Southport respectively.