Rampant County
COUNTY emphatically overcame a weary Leamington at Edgeley Park on Saturday to secure three consecutive wins for the first time since December 2016, with a 4-0 rout over The Brakes to hold onto the final play-off spot in the National League North.
After consecutive home league defeats last month to Nuneaton and Brackley, the Hatters’ season seemed all but over before a remarkable resurgence was capped with a comfortable three points over Paul Holleran’s mid-table side.
After tight wins over Gainsborough and Boston on the Saturday and Tuesday prior, Gannon opted to bring the week’s fixtures to an end with a 4-2-3-1 formation, showing one change from the dramatic 1-0 win over the Pilgrims. Dan Cowan was ruled out due to a virus, with winger Darren Stephenson starting whilst Adam Thomas deputised at right-back.
Leamington, meanwhile, had been in action less than 48 hours prior in a 1-0 defeat on the road at Spennymoor – and Holleran’s men showed the effects of the journey at Edgeley Park, after not arriving back to their home stadium until the early hours of Friday morning and losing both their first choice goalkeeper and left-back to injury.
And so it was down to 41-year-old goalkeeper Jose Veiga to start between the posts for the visitors, and it took the ruthless hosts less than two minutes to capitalise on the away side’s misfortune. After the impressive Scott Duxbury’s fierce cross-shot was parried by Veiga, Jimmy Ball pounced to drill home at the veteran stopper’s near post with an effort which flew through the fingers of the former Macclesfield man to hand Gannon and his men the perfect start.
Matty Warburton almost doubled the lead with 10 minutes on the clock for a rampant County, courtesy of a curling shot that struck the right post, before the lively Rhys Turner succeeded in doing so – having intercepted a header by visiting captain Jamie Hodd and leftfooted home with a piledriver from 20 yards which left the hapless Veiga helpless once more.
But almost immediately afterwards, a second for Ball, and County’s third, followed by way of a 30-yard pile-driver.
And two minutes later, Jason Oswell swivelled to fire a half-volley that grazed the crossbar as the hosts showed no mercy in one of the most “complete” performances of their season, according to boss Gannon. The Hatters began the second half much as they had operated throughout the first – forcing two corners at the outset, and creating a chance, from Oswell, that Veiga did well to keep out.
Sam Minihan’s introduction for his first match in six months – since he scored in a 4-1 home win over North Ferriby - attracted the biggest ovation in a rather flat second half.
And the substitute could have earned himself even greater acclaim with his very first touch – but he skied over Warburton’s cross from the left when unmarked inside the six yard box to deny the former Worcester man a dream return.
It was left, ultimately, to the final substitute Bohan Dixon to surge upfield against a completely exhausted away defence, and pass out wide to Minihan, whose cross from the right found Oswell.
And when the leading scorer’s shot rebounded off the far upright – the second time Oswell had struck the woodwork that afternoon after a run of no league goals in 2018 for the former Newtown forward - Duxbury was on hand to tap into an empty net and round off the “perfect” afternoon for a County side full of confidence, and heading into a bumper Easter weekend with a trip to Bradford PA being preceded by another home affair with struggling Tamworth.