Post by hatter_in_macc on Jul 29, 2015 13:18:52 GMT
My report on last night's goings-on follows. To appear on a COWS near you shortly...!
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COUNTY v MANCHESTER UNITED UNDER-21s (PRE-SEASON FRIENDLY): MATCH REPORT (28/07/2015)
By Hatter in Macc
Led Stuns The Reds, As County Continue To Impress
Karl Ledsham’s second goal in a County shirt neither earned the Hatters any points nor saw them through to a subsequent knockout-round - but, such was its quality just prior to the half-hour mark of this penultimate, drawn home-friendly, it will certainly live long in the collective memory of the Edgeley Park faithful.
Indeed - and as coincidence would have it, bearing in mind the opposition - comparisons with a certain iconic strike from the halfway-line by a former ‘Fergie Fledgling’ nineteen years earlier instantly sprung to mind... without being wide of the mark, either.
The present-day ‘Fledglings’ from Old Trafford - managed by Warren Joyce (‘Joyce’s Juveniles’, anyone?!) - arrived in SK3 as reigning Under-21 Premier League Champions. With the senior United players on tour-duty in North America, the visiting side was, as anticipated, short on household names - although one starter, the Uruguayan defender, Guillermo Varela, had been a member of his club’s UEFA Champions League squad for 2014/15.
The Hatters, for their part, showed four changes from the line-up that had started at Macclesfield on the previous Friday night - with Sean O’Hanlon, Kayode Odejayi, Sefton Gonzales and Ledsham taking to the field in place of Ryan Ellison, Lamin Colley, Micah Evans (all three of whom were named among the County substitutes) and Joe Garvin.
The rain which had dogged much of an almost-autumnal day in and around Stockport gave way to blue sky and evening sunshine, as the Hatters quickly settled into their stride. Abs Baggie was the first to unleash an attempt on goal, with a now-customary thirty-yard strike that flew just wide of the left upright. A little later, Danny Morton arched himself back to connect his head with a free kick - although the attacking right back’s looped effort was comfortably caught by visiting ‘keeper, Joel Castro Pereira.
With Odejayi and Gonzales making their presence felt to great effect up front, Lewis Montrose and Glenn Rule dominating in midfield, and the back four appearing effortlessly impervious, it was Neil Young’s Ones, rather than the United Young Ones, who looked the stronger side by far during the first half. The visitors’ chances ahead of the break were, without doubt, few and far between. Matthew Wilcock did fire an early, long-distance effort high over the Cheadle End crossbar, although Danny Hurst was not called into meaningful action until only minutes remained before the interval - diving to tip around his left post a Devonte Redmond shot from the edge of County’s box.
For the period in between, the opportunities of the game fell to, and were created by, County. First, Ledsham picked up the ball to the left of United’s six-yard box following good work on the right by Odejayi and Morton. The unmarked midfielder then teed himself up for a volley - only to blast well over the bar. Morton himself subsequently tried his luck again, but, after cutting in from the right, his final shot was also fired high.
Not that Ledsham’s miss was to be remembered for very long, mind. For the time was fast approaching when one moment of brilliance would see him become (and I make no apologies for this...) ‘Ledge-sham’!
It all began innocuously enough - by way of a County move upfield that petered out in the United area, with a loose ball sitting up ready for Pereira to clear. And clear it he did - albeit to Ledsham on the left flank just inside the visitors’ half. Without hesitation, Ledsham flighted the ball back from whence it came, and gasps around the ground grew louder as the looping, curling masterstroke deflected down from the bar, against the unwitting Pereira who had scrambled back in vain, and over the line.
And, in an instant, all bets for County’s Goal of 2015/16 were surely off. Eleven days before the season’s start.
HALF-TIME: County 1 (Ledsham, 29), United 0.
The visitors emerged for the second half, seemingly with greater focus and sense of purpose. Almost immediately, Timothy Fosu-Mensah showed his own declaration of intent by getting behind O’Hanlon and breaking through on goal - but would have been disappointed with the eventual shot that fizzed wide of the right-hand post.
Ryan Ellison replaced the injured Gareth Roberts seven minutes after the break - a change that also saw the increasingly impressive youth-loanee from Everton, Jordan Thorniley, move into the left-back berth. Ellison’s first deed was to ‘try a Ledsham‘ with an audacious free kick, taken within his own half, that flew narrowly past Pereira’s left upright. Shortly afterwards, when County’s first corner of the half was only partially cleared, Thorniley got in on the spectacular-efforts act - unleashing a thirty-yard volley that the United ‘keeper did well to palm over.
Just ahead of the hour, however, United drew level. And just as Ledsham had atoned for an earlier miss by scoring, so, too, did Fosu-Mensah, as he ran onto a through-ball and finished clinically past Hurst.
The remaining thirty minutes of a highly entertaining contest witnessed a plethora of further chances - with the majority coming the way of the Hatters. Gonzales forced Pereira to dive and parry an angled shot from the left, before testing him again moments later with a well-struck shot from the edge of United’s area. And O’Hanlon came close to repeating his recent debut and goal against Halifax, when his head connected with a corner taken to the right of the Cheadle End - but, on this occasion, the Captain’s effort flew wide of the far post.
Hurst was not being put through his paces to the same extent as his opposite goalkeeping number, but, when he was called upon, County’s custodian commanded his area with impressive authority and tidiness - cutting out a low drive from the right by Redmond, and, subsequently, holding onto a looping deflection under pressure from half-time replacement, Ashley Fletcher.
O’Hanlon, together with Colley, featured again in something of a goalmouth scramble at the Cheadle End - with both attempting to stab home a free kick - before the County Skipper was flagged offside. And Thorniley fired in his second attempt of the evening, which, on this occasion, having been struck from just inside the box, just cleared United’s bar.
For all County’s dominance of the attempts-tally, however, it was United to whom the best chance of all fell in the later stages. Hurst could only parry a Fosu-Mensah cross from the right, which fell to Fletcher - but, with the goal at his mercy from close range, the visiting substitute blasted his shot in the direction of the Railway End scoreboard.
Enough time remained for Micah Evans to fire wide, and for headers by Thorniley and Ledsham to find their respective ways the wrong side of bar and post. Finally, and seconds ahead of the full-time whistle, Fletcher failed to emulate the game’s two goal-scorers by converting a shot to follow a missed opportunity, when his shot was saved by Hurst.
The rain returned to lash down with a vengeance on Edgeley, rather rudely in time for homeward journeys. And yet, after the latest in a series of impressive pre-season preparation-matches, there is ‘more than a feeling’, ahead of Boston’s visit to kick off the season in earnest, that there may - just may - be more blue than grey skies overhead from now on...
FULL-TIME: County 1 (Ledsham, 29), United 1 (Fosu-Mensah, 57).
Team: Hurst, Morton, Roberts (Ellison, 52), O’Hanlon, Thorniley, Montrose, Baggie (Evans, 56 (Holsgrove, 84)), Rule, Odejayi (Colley, 65), Gonzales, Ledsham.
Unused Sub: Tyson.
Attendance: 2,278.
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COUNTY v MANCHESTER UNITED UNDER-21s (PRE-SEASON FRIENDLY): MATCH REPORT (28/07/2015)
By Hatter in Macc
Led Stuns The Reds, As County Continue To Impress
Karl Ledsham’s second goal in a County shirt neither earned the Hatters any points nor saw them through to a subsequent knockout-round - but, such was its quality just prior to the half-hour mark of this penultimate, drawn home-friendly, it will certainly live long in the collective memory of the Edgeley Park faithful.
Indeed - and as coincidence would have it, bearing in mind the opposition - comparisons with a certain iconic strike from the halfway-line by a former ‘Fergie Fledgling’ nineteen years earlier instantly sprung to mind... without being wide of the mark, either.
The present-day ‘Fledglings’ from Old Trafford - managed by Warren Joyce (‘Joyce’s Juveniles’, anyone?!) - arrived in SK3 as reigning Under-21 Premier League Champions. With the senior United players on tour-duty in North America, the visiting side was, as anticipated, short on household names - although one starter, the Uruguayan defender, Guillermo Varela, had been a member of his club’s UEFA Champions League squad for 2014/15.
The Hatters, for their part, showed four changes from the line-up that had started at Macclesfield on the previous Friday night - with Sean O’Hanlon, Kayode Odejayi, Sefton Gonzales and Ledsham taking to the field in place of Ryan Ellison, Lamin Colley, Micah Evans (all three of whom were named among the County substitutes) and Joe Garvin.
The rain which had dogged much of an almost-autumnal day in and around Stockport gave way to blue sky and evening sunshine, as the Hatters quickly settled into their stride. Abs Baggie was the first to unleash an attempt on goal, with a now-customary thirty-yard strike that flew just wide of the left upright. A little later, Danny Morton arched himself back to connect his head with a free kick - although the attacking right back’s looped effort was comfortably caught by visiting ‘keeper, Joel Castro Pereira.
With Odejayi and Gonzales making their presence felt to great effect up front, Lewis Montrose and Glenn Rule dominating in midfield, and the back four appearing effortlessly impervious, it was Neil Young’s Ones, rather than the United Young Ones, who looked the stronger side by far during the first half. The visitors’ chances ahead of the break were, without doubt, few and far between. Matthew Wilcock did fire an early, long-distance effort high over the Cheadle End crossbar, although Danny Hurst was not called into meaningful action until only minutes remained before the interval - diving to tip around his left post a Devonte Redmond shot from the edge of County’s box.
For the period in between, the opportunities of the game fell to, and were created by, County. First, Ledsham picked up the ball to the left of United’s six-yard box following good work on the right by Odejayi and Morton. The unmarked midfielder then teed himself up for a volley - only to blast well over the bar. Morton himself subsequently tried his luck again, but, after cutting in from the right, his final shot was also fired high.
Not that Ledsham’s miss was to be remembered for very long, mind. For the time was fast approaching when one moment of brilliance would see him become (and I make no apologies for this...) ‘Ledge-sham’!
It all began innocuously enough - by way of a County move upfield that petered out in the United area, with a loose ball sitting up ready for Pereira to clear. And clear it he did - albeit to Ledsham on the left flank just inside the visitors’ half. Without hesitation, Ledsham flighted the ball back from whence it came, and gasps around the ground grew louder as the looping, curling masterstroke deflected down from the bar, against the unwitting Pereira who had scrambled back in vain, and over the line.
And, in an instant, all bets for County’s Goal of 2015/16 were surely off. Eleven days before the season’s start.
HALF-TIME: County 1 (Ledsham, 29), United 0.
The visitors emerged for the second half, seemingly with greater focus and sense of purpose. Almost immediately, Timothy Fosu-Mensah showed his own declaration of intent by getting behind O’Hanlon and breaking through on goal - but would have been disappointed with the eventual shot that fizzed wide of the right-hand post.
Ryan Ellison replaced the injured Gareth Roberts seven minutes after the break - a change that also saw the increasingly impressive youth-loanee from Everton, Jordan Thorniley, move into the left-back berth. Ellison’s first deed was to ‘try a Ledsham‘ with an audacious free kick, taken within his own half, that flew narrowly past Pereira’s left upright. Shortly afterwards, when County’s first corner of the half was only partially cleared, Thorniley got in on the spectacular-efforts act - unleashing a thirty-yard volley that the United ‘keeper did well to palm over.
Just ahead of the hour, however, United drew level. And just as Ledsham had atoned for an earlier miss by scoring, so, too, did Fosu-Mensah, as he ran onto a through-ball and finished clinically past Hurst.
The remaining thirty minutes of a highly entertaining contest witnessed a plethora of further chances - with the majority coming the way of the Hatters. Gonzales forced Pereira to dive and parry an angled shot from the left, before testing him again moments later with a well-struck shot from the edge of United’s area. And O’Hanlon came close to repeating his recent debut and goal against Halifax, when his head connected with a corner taken to the right of the Cheadle End - but, on this occasion, the Captain’s effort flew wide of the far post.
Hurst was not being put through his paces to the same extent as his opposite goalkeeping number, but, when he was called upon, County’s custodian commanded his area with impressive authority and tidiness - cutting out a low drive from the right by Redmond, and, subsequently, holding onto a looping deflection under pressure from half-time replacement, Ashley Fletcher.
O’Hanlon, together with Colley, featured again in something of a goalmouth scramble at the Cheadle End - with both attempting to stab home a free kick - before the County Skipper was flagged offside. And Thorniley fired in his second attempt of the evening, which, on this occasion, having been struck from just inside the box, just cleared United’s bar.
For all County’s dominance of the attempts-tally, however, it was United to whom the best chance of all fell in the later stages. Hurst could only parry a Fosu-Mensah cross from the right, which fell to Fletcher - but, with the goal at his mercy from close range, the visiting substitute blasted his shot in the direction of the Railway End scoreboard.
Enough time remained for Micah Evans to fire wide, and for headers by Thorniley and Ledsham to find their respective ways the wrong side of bar and post. Finally, and seconds ahead of the full-time whistle, Fletcher failed to emulate the game’s two goal-scorers by converting a shot to follow a missed opportunity, when his shot was saved by Hurst.
The rain returned to lash down with a vengeance on Edgeley, rather rudely in time for homeward journeys. And yet, after the latest in a series of impressive pre-season preparation-matches, there is ‘more than a feeling’, ahead of Boston’s visit to kick off the season in earnest, that there may - just may - be more blue than grey skies overhead from now on...
FULL-TIME: County 1 (Ledsham, 29), United 1 (Fosu-Mensah, 57).
Team: Hurst, Morton, Roberts (Ellison, 52), O’Hanlon, Thorniley, Montrose, Baggie (Evans, 56 (Holsgrove, 84)), Rule, Odejayi (Colley, 65), Gonzales, Ledsham.
Unused Sub: Tyson.
Attendance: 2,278.
