Collar salvages
WILL Collar proved the hero once again for County, grabbing The Hatters a last-gasp draw at in-form Gillingham on Saturday in an entertaining 1-1 draw at Priestfield.
Collar’s 89th minute header hauled County level after George Lapslie’s early second-half opener, with Collar’s 13th of a debut EFL campaign earning what boss Dave Challinor feels could be a “valuable” point in the promotion race.
Seeking a first win at Priestfield since 2000, Challinor named an unchanged line-up for the third successive fixture, with only Callum Camps replacing the injured Antoni Sarcevic on the bench.
Sarcevic, who hobbled off in last Monday’s 4-0 thrashing of Newport County at Edgeley Park, now looks set to miss the remainder of the season after a recent flurry of injuries.
All looked set for an intriguing battle at Neil Harris’s Gills side, with County winning five of the last six away from home prior to Saturday, and Gillingham winning eight of the last nine at home.
Harris and company had frustrated County in a goalless draw at Edgeley Park a month prior, with former Millwall striker Harris openly confirming that his side had gone to County looking for a goalless draw.
It wasn’t quite the same approach in Kent at the weekend, with the home side happy to have a go at County and, ultimately, good value for their point after Collar’s late intervention. County did do their best on a number of occasions to aid the hosts in that approach, however, with Akil Wright uncharacteristically sloppy and gifting the home side a number of early chances to counterattack.
The first of those came just five minutes in when Wright’s attempted crossfield ball was picked off by Tom Nichols, with winger Alex MacDonald played in on goal and denied by the legs of Ben Hinchliffe.
Midway through the first half, a foul on Myles Hippolyte by Max Ehmer earned County a free-kick just outside the box – but the kick itself, from wingback Ryan Rydel, took a deflection off Conor Masterson and spun over the crossbar.
Leading Gillingham scorer Nichols found space on the edge of the area after another Wright slip-up, with Nichols’ eventual curling effort well parried by Hinchliffe.
Wright looked to make amends at the other end moments later, curling over the crossbar from the edge of the area after a Kyle Knoyle corner.
It was a half of few chances for County at a tough place to go, but there did appear ample opportunity for the visitors to get at the hosts who were effectively playing on the counter - in the second half.
The remaining fortyfive minutes didn’t pan out that way, however, with Gillingham stepping up their efforts and County looking all at sea at the back for the opening quarter of an hour of the restart.
After Myles Hippolyte had forced a smart save by Glenn Morris on the edge of the Gillingham area, it looked that The Hatters would settle into the second half in search of a winner.
But just minutes later, Cheye Alexander’s cross was missed by Wright, and cannoned off a help