Celtic used their get out of Jail card when substitute Kayode Odejayi nodded into his own net after Stockport had taken the lead with only minutes remaining, but to be fair, a draw was fair result.
Both sides had good early chances. The lively Dalial Brewster gave Tony McMillan a warm up shot, before Bohan Dixon got on the end of a good move, driving home with Andreas Arestidou beaten, it needed Lewis Montrose on the line to prevent the goal; Dixon again went close with a flicked header from a long throw that Arestidou tipped onto the bar. Brewster gave some of the fans hope when his shot went into the side netting, and Sean O?Hanlon beat McMillan, hitting the crossbar. With tempers boiling over occasionally, a couple of judicious bookings calmed things slightly, but the first half was very feisty. Aaron Chalmers and Dixon both went close, whilst at the other end Joe Garvin had a great chance that McMillan athletically tipped over the bar.
The second half started off much the same, both sides getting chances. Bohan Dixon volleyed a half cleared ball across the face and narrowly wide, a feat repeated by Brewster at the other end, with his striker partner Jonny Margetts sliding in and missing. Brewster had County's best chance of the game when he fired from close range, and though McMillan got down to the post, the ball cannoned back off the post and flew across the face of goal.
Peter Wylie got forward and fired in a decent shot that took a nick out for a corner, but County broke from the corner and Brewster took advantage of momentary hesitation between Wylie and Hughes to push the ball between them to Margetts. Though Hughes got across to make things difficult, Margetts picked his spot and beat McMillan with a decent enough strike.
With just ten minutes left, Celtic didn't lose their head, and kept pushing forward, Chris Simm giving their back line a lot to think about. Aidan Chippendale also caused no end of problems firing in cross after cross, going close with a free kick, and then getting tripped just outside the box. Dale Wright fired in the free kick over the top of everybody. Arestidou went across as Matty Hughes nodded the ball over towards the back post where Simm was coming in, but Simm was beaten to the ball by Kayode Odejayi, only brought on to erode the stoppage time, and Odejayi got a firm header on the ball, pushing it over the line. Hughes would probably love to claim it, but it was a good header from the County man.
In the end, County still leave Bower Fold without a victory for another season, and in a game that could have gone either way, went neither.
1 | McMillan, Tony | ||
2 | Wylie, Peter | ||
3 | Crowley, Oliver | ||
4 | Hughes, Matty | ||
5 | Shaw, John | ||
6 | Chalmers, Aaron | > 62 | |
7 | Dixon, Bohan | ||
8 | Wright, Dale | ||
9 | Farrell, Adam | > 77 | |
10 | Tames, Steve | > 62 | |
11 | Mudimu, Alec | ||
12 | Chippendale, Aidan | < 62 | |
14 | Burns, Danny | < 62 | |
15 | Simm, Chris | < 77 | |
16 | Lingouba, Cesaire | ||
17 | Johnson, Alex |
1 | Arestidou, Andreas | ||
2 | Tonge, Dale | ||
3 | Russell, Charlie | ||
4 | Smalley, Chris | ||
5 | O`Hanlon, Sean | ||
6 | Garvin, Joe | ||
7 | Baggie, Abdulai | > 72 | |
8 | Montrose, Lewis | ||
9 | Brewster, Delial | ||
10 | Margetts, Jonny | > 90 | |
11 | Ledsham, Karl | ||
12 | Evans, Micah | < 72 | |
14 | Odejayi, Kayode | < 90 | |
15 | Morton, Danny | ||
16 | Roberts, Gareth | ||
17 | Ormson, Ian |