MATCH REPORT: VICS 2 - 1 COUNTY

By Chris Larkin

Once upon a time on a lovely July day in Flixton, Stockport County emerged from the tunnel in their dazzling Argentina style kits for the first 'serious' test of pre-season.

Our opponents, Northwich Flixtoria.

The Vics, with their Celtic-esque kit, met us under the hot Mancunian Sun and off we went.

County lined-up for the first half as follows: Lewis King, Kyle Jacobs, Jordan Fagbola, James Tunnicliffe, Sean O'Halloran, Trialist (Fisher), Jamie Hand, Ian Craney, Ian Howard, Phil Jevons and Kris Dennis

The Vics started the game in bright fashion really taking the game to the Hatters.

The defence struggled to contain the opposition forwards with our hooped hosts having a few decent opportunities in the first five minutes, with one particularly dangerous chance seeing the ball fizz across Lewis King's goal.

As the half went on, County's new players started to click with Craney spraying out some wonderful balls to the wings and Jacobs looking particularly impressive down the right flank.

Ian Howard, Phil Jevons and Kristian Dennis started linking up well too, as County went in search of the opener.

Finally, with about 30 minutes played and County's dominance growing, they took the lead with a lovely goal from Dennis.

As the ball bounced down in front of the new Hatters striker, he took it in his stride and unleashed a beautiful weighted lob over the on-rushing goalkeeper to send County 1-0 up.

The goal seemed to blow the wind out of both sides' sails as the rest of the first half petered out and neither side really looked like scoring again before the break.

It was all change when County came out for the second half.

The Hatters fielded plenty of trialists, and took on the challenge of the last 45 minutes with the line-up: Ian Ormson, Trialist (Sam Hibbert), James Tunnicliffe, Sean O'Halloran, Trialist (Ali Traore), Trialist (Tom Donegan), Trialist (Ross Fisher), Rhys Turner, Brandon Windsor and Trialist (Ryan Brooke).

The half started slowly with County having the best of the possession and looking dangerous down the wing with Ali Traore really pushing towards the Northwich goal.

However, no real chances ever came County's way. And as the half went on Northwich really started to get a grip on the game.

Eventually, as with County in the first half, the pressure finally paid off and former Hatters youth teamer Sam Hibbert brought down the Vics attacker in the box and the ref wasted no time in pointing to the spot with Taylor converting successfully on 72 minutes.

Just a minute or two later, Hibbert went some way to making amends for his costly earlier error with a fantastic goal-line clearance that denied an almost certain goal for the Vics.

It was all in vain though, as Northwich scored what proved to be the winning goal following what seemed to be a lack of communication at the back, somewhat unsurprising with so many trialists in the team.

But following the second goal, County never looked like getting an equaliser.

The 30 degree temperature was clearly taking its toll and the players looked exhausted and deflated from the goal. Neither side seemed like adding to their score and, sure enough, the game ended with the players collapsing to the floor, at the final whistle.

While it was disappointing for the traveling Hatters fans to see a 2-1 loss, it was good to finally have pre-season up and running and have our football fix back.

And while none of the trialists overly impressed, Ali Traore showed enough to suggest he might have something about him.

Fisher also looked useful in a right-sided midfield role. He likes to push forward, and was pretty vocal - particularly offering encouragement to the younger players and the trialists.

See you all at Cheadle Town!