UNDER THE HAMMER
DAWSON’S LATE HEADER SINKS STOCKPORT
THROUGH the gloom and the teeming rain, Craig Dawson rose to meet Jarrod Bowen’s cross and break Stockport County’s resistance last night.
It had held until seven minutes from the end at a sodden Edgeley Park. It rained so hard that there were areas of the pitch where the ball would hardly roll through the surface water, and the players struggled to keep their feet.
The gap between Premier League and National League closed with every minute that the downpour refused to subside, and the prospect of extra time loomed large.
In these conditions, quite how someone managed to set light to the fireworks display that briefly disrupted this FA Cup third round tie is anyone’s guess.
But then Dawson broke the deadlock to end County’s dream of joining non-League Chorley in the fourth round — of the prospect of facing Doncaster at home and the significantly bigger attraction of facing Manchester United or Liverpool in the he fifth round. It will be West Ham who go through ugh and they will be mightily relieved d to have avoided another cup upset here.
Much of the build-up had concerned the last meeting between these clubs in December 1996, a League e Cup replay that hat ended in a 2-1 upset for a County sidee featur-featuring Jim Gannon as a player. l
That was a little different, though. Stockport were a club on the up, heading for the semi-finals that season and a place in what is now the Championship.
They have now been out of the Football League for a decade, dropping as low as the sixth tier, which is where they were when Gannon took charge for the third time in 2016. The future looks brighter under the 52-year- old manager and new owner Mark Stott, but 86 places separated the teams at kick-off.
David Moyes — the victim of a famous cup upset at the hands of Shrewsbury Town when he was Everton manager in 2003 — had promised to put out a strong team and made five changes against a Stockport side that included Lois Maynard, the cousin of Marcus Rashford, and Wayne Rooney’s younger brother John. It was no surprise that West Ham dominated the early exchanges, with Declan Rice dictating the play. Rice’s early cross from the right evaded the Stockport defence anand was brought down by Said Benrahma, who worked enough space in the box to de despatch a low shshot that clipped tthe outside of a post. Andriy Yarmolenko fired wide of the other upright shortly afterwards and aat that stage it looked like being a rather long night for the non-Leaguers. Respite came in the form of a fireworks display in the streets behind Darren Randolph’s goal. It was prolonged enough for Mike Dean to halt play for a couple of minutes, presumably because the players could not hear his whistle rather and not because he wanted to admire the pyrotechnics. When play resumed, Stockport created their best chance of the first half thanks to Randolph’s decision to come out and punch Rooney’s corner. The ball went straight up and had to be hurriedly cleared by the Hammers defence as it bobbed about near the six-yard box. The sodden pitch played into the hands of the home side, with their Premier League opponents dragged into a bit of a slog. Yarmolenko, in particular, looked miserable after sliding down the touchline on his back and discarded his sodden gloves shortly afterwards.
The conditions were certainly not conducive to playing the ball around at the back and Stockport skipper Liam Hogan was relieved that the ball flew across goal and not towards it when his pass was charged down by Mark Noble.
For all their possession, the Hammers l acked penetration.
Michail Antonio seemed almost surprised to be played through on goal shortly before half-time and Mark Kitching reacted quickly to poke the ball of his foot as he shaped to shoot.
If Stockport had been a little reticent to attack — or simply unable to — in the first half, they were altogether more purposeful after the break.
They broke forward whenever possible and West Ham’s defending became increasingly desperate in the conditions, not least when Craig Dawson threw his body in front of Connor Jennings’ shot after he had exchanged passes with Sam Minihan.
But County had a lucky escape in the 76th minute when keeper Ben Hinchliffe made his first error of the night, miscuing a clearance straight to Benrahma but the Hammers No 9 tried to lift the ball over the only defender on the line and placed his effort wide.
It looked like the visitors had blown their chance but then Dawson — the man who started his career at non-League Radcliffe Borough — rose to meet substitute Bowen’s cross in the 83rd minute and it was game over.