By Chris Larkin
A confident second half display saw County claim a 2-0 victory in their first competitive match against rebels FC United of Manchester.
With just under 3 weeks until the start of the season, Ian Bogie's squad is really starting to take shape and offer even the most cynical County fan reasons for optimism for the season ahead.
The Hatters kicked off with Lewis King, Kyle Jacobs, Jordan Fagbola, Keiran Charnock, Stephen O'Halloran, Rhys Turner, Jamie Hand, Paris Bateman, Chris Sutherland, Phil Jevons and Kris Dennis starting the game against our near neighbours in a 4-3-3 formation.
The first half was fairly even with both teams looking dangerous in patches. United however decided to up the ante and start kicking lumps out of County players as the first half dragged on.
Rhodri Giggs, brother of Man Utd's more famous Ryan, looked sharp in spells but couldn't quite get the ball to run for him despite decent approach play.
But as both teams continued to size each other up, the Rebels had a couple of decent set-piece chances before County hit back with a good run from Sutherland, who was let down by his wayward touch as another chance went begging.
The referee ended the stalemate of the first 45 minutes which, though entertaining enough, was too short of goal opportunities to be considered a classic.
After the break County made three changes with Ian Craney, James Tunnicliffe and Ian Howard replacing Chris Sutherland, Kyle Jacobs and the hugely disappointing trialist Paris Bateman.
Within a minute, County were attacking and soon had a wonderful chance as the ball bobbled in the area. It was practically begging for a blue shirt to make contact but, unfortunately, when the shot did come in it was blocked by a United defender.
The disappointment didn't last too long though, as a beautifully struck corner from Craney found the head of Tunnicliffe who stuck his bonce in where it hurts to powerfully nod County into a 1-0 lead with just 10 minutes of the second half played.
Just 5 minutes later, following another spell of County domination, a beautiful bit of interplay between Hand and Jevons sets up a shot for Ian Craney who, despite having his effort blocked, got enough on the strike to see the ball bounce out to a well placed Kristian Dennis. The striker, making a name for himself among the Edgeley faithful as a bit of a poacher, duly smashed in the rebound to put County 2-0 up.
And County continued as they started, going in search of a third, with the visitors shell-shocked and firmly on the back foot.
On came Brandon Windsor to replace Kristian Dennis as County continued to press forward with a few decent crosses fizzing across goal and an Ian Craney shot from distance just missing the target.
But County had to be content with their 2-0 win and hugely dominant second half performance as the goals dried up in the run-in to the final whistle.
In the dying minutes, FC United had a half-hearted penalty shout waved away by the smirking referee and, that was it - the man in black blew for full time with the majority of the 1,707 fans leaving happy after a solid performance.
(With thanks to Hatter-in-Macc for stats and assistance)
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