Sammy McIlroy stepped out into the sunlight today at 
And it wasn’t long before McIlroy was giving referee, Mr. G. Laws a welcome of his own when after just 2 minutes, despite the linesman having hesitating in raising his flag; he overruled his assistant to halt the run of Aaron Wilbraham who ran himself into an offside position.
Within a minute of the prior incident, an incisive pass from Darren Caskey let through Michael Brough into the Hatter’s penalty area, only to foul Stockport’s John Hardiker on his way through with what looked to an early half-chance to take the lead on the cards.
The above was the first of three incidents that, eventually, earned the Welsh under-21 international midfielder a yellow card for persistent fouling. A decision which, in accordance with some decisions from referee’s in recent events, showed a great deal of logic from the man in black as he refused to be too card-happy with the youngster.
Apart from this, the first-half of the match went by pretty much unnoticed with both teams failing to produce a honest opportunity worthy of breaking the stalemate; and when the first real opportunity arose, it was met with an athletic save from James Spencer after Clive Platt had hit a sweet right footed shot goal-bound.
HALF TIME:
Whatever McIlroy had said to his side during the interval it looked to be paying dividends for the Hatters as they immediately set about putting the Magpies onto the back-foot; something that within one-and-a-half minutes of the restart paid off, as Stuart Barlow broke through to lay off Aaron Wilbraham who, after cutting inside, fired a wicked strike down to the left of County ‘keeper, Steve Mildenhall.
With 52 minutes gone, Danny Livesey showed all the signs of a resolute defender in the making when he dived in to block a close-range effort from
Then out of the blue, Notts were back in the game.
Ian Baraclough found Heffernan on the edge of the eighteen-yard box, Darren Caskey made his move which allowed him to slide in his first goal of the campaign despite goalkeeper, James Spencer’s best efforts.
Before too long, the scorer of
Later on and the referee was well-on-his-way to un-doing his previous good work after he once more overruled his assistant when Baraclough, apparently, fouled Stockport’s Alistair Gibb – despite Stockport winger making a tackle that would have been more accustomed to THE rugby game that was taking place all the way over in Australia – and yes, England did beat South Africa [25-6].
When Paul Heffernan broke in on goal after slipping in behind John Hardiker the ball looked destined for one place and one place only – and it would have been albeit for a brave challenge from young home-grown Stockport shot-stopper, James Spencer.
County’s defences were then stretched to their limits as Ian Baraclough and Steve Jenkins were forced into making timely clearances off the line from respective efforts from Stockport’s own, Dave Challinor and Stuart Barlow.
Then just as the game enrolled on it’s final 5 minutes, Clive Platt sent one half of the crowd into celebrations [and it WASN’T the Stockport fans] as he turned inside one man to curl a first-rate finish past Spencer in between the Hatter’s sticks – a goal which looked to have clinched the game and sent the Magpies home with only their third three points of the campaign.
But when Danny Livesey gave away a late corner, Jim Goodwin was on hand to smash home the equaliser just two minutes from time in what looked to be a perfected corner routine from Stockport.
In the final chance of the afternoon, the Magpies could and should have claimed the tie when Tony Hackworth, who had replaced Paul Heffernan –much to the dismay of the travelling Notts following, latched onto a Darren Caskey through-ball late on, only to turn his effort wide of the left hand post.
FULL TIME: Stockport County 2-2 NOTTS COUNTY
As the Carling Cup Third Round clash with Chelski draws nearer, Billy Dearden still looks to have PLENTY of work to do if his Notts side are to leave London with a shred of dignity.
Match Ratings to follow.