Harrogate Town preview
County make their first trip to a Yorkshire ground for an FA Cup tie since 1993. That November afternoon saw County come back over the Pennines with a hard fought victory over Rotherham United when late goals from Lee Todd and Andy Preece saw them respond to Chris Wilder's penalty on the half hour. That tie was in the first round proper and County begin the long haul to try and reach that stage again with Saturday's match against fellow Conference North side Harrogate Town.
OPPOSITION FORM
Town's form this season can
probably be safely described as consistently inconsistent. It took them a few
games to get going but they have recorded three victories in their last five matches.
H v Oxford City, Won 1-0
(19th)
A v Lowestoft Town, Drew 0-0
(20th)
H v Stalybridge Celtic, Won 1-0
(16th)
H v Solihull Moors, Lost 0-4
(18th)
A v Leamington, Won 3-1 (14th
=)
As far as the FA Cup is
concerned whilst County scored that narrow EP win over Brighouse Town at this
stage last season, our hosts lost 1-0 at Colwyn Bay.
OPPOSITION
PLAYERS
The players involved in Harrogate's
3-1 win at the North's Leamington outpost were:
Harrogate are certain to have
to make at least one change as Simon Lenighan starts a three match ban having been
ever present so far this season. In addition Jonathan Margetts has left the
club at the end of a loan spell from Hull City which saw him start six games
scoring twice - he did however miss last weekend's game
Although Lenighan will be missing
his first game of the season Town will still have five men who have yet to miss
a game - presuming they are selected for the cup tie - and amongst them is keeper
Phil Barnes. The
37 year old has been a regular opponent for County since the turn of the century.
He has faced County on 12 occasions and so far he has generally been on the losing
side. Whilst at Blackpool he recorded two wins and suffered just one defeat. We
fared better against him during his Grimsby days with two wins and two draws he
even managed to help us along with an own goal in one game. Grimsby did win
their last match against us with Barnes in goals. Since dropping into non-league
County managed a double against Alfreton and Gainsborough when Barnes was wearing
the number 1.
On the goal scoring front
Harrogate are towards the bottom of the League's scoring list with just a goal
per game. Top of their scorer's chart with 4 is last season's Conference North leading
scorer James Walshaw. Walshaw found County harder opponents than most last season
as only one of his tally came against us, although he had previously scored
once for Darlington against County. Margetts was the only other player who had
scored more than once so far this season.
One County connection in the home
side is ex-loanee Matt Heath. The central defender missed the start of the
season but has appeared in all Town's last seven games. Matt played 10
games for County back in 2003-04. He was on Leicester City's books at the time.
THE
COUNTY SIDE
With no news of the injury
problems reducing it seems likely County will make few changes to their
line-up. There were no real clues at Wednesday's Development Squad game although
Jordan Lazenbury was absent which might mean he was not being risked ahead Saturday.
Glenn Belizika and Jordan Fagbola got plenty of match practice though putting
in 90 minutes against a lively Nelson Development Squad. There could of course
be the need to replace Ian Stevenson if Alfreton have not given permission for
him to play in the Cup.
1993 was also the first time County
paid a visit to Wetherby Road. Danny Bergara took his squad to Harrogate for a
pre-season friendly where they recorded a 3-0 win
Saturday 7 August 1993 - Friendly
Match
Harrogate Town 0
Stockport County 3 (Francis,
Ward, PA Williams) att. 275
Harrogate: Paul Allen, J
Collins (Dennis Peacock), Geoff Barker, Simon Mayers, Lee Tomlinson, Gary
Edmunds, Paul Brown (C Barker), Mark Price, Ricky Greenough, J Lagan (T Deane),
Marcus Philpott
County: Mark Deegan, Dave
Miller, Jim Carstairs, David Frain (Peter Ward), Mike Flynn (Tony Barras), Alan
Finley, Martin James, Kieran Toal, Kevin Francis, Chris Beaumont and Andy
Preece (Paul A Williams)
The only other past visit was
last season with the first half collapse that marked the end of Ian Bogie's days
in charge at the Hatters.
Saturday 31 August 2013 -
Skrill Conference North
Harrogate Town 3 (Bolder,
Woods, Hall)
Stockport County 1 (Howard) att.
918
County: Ian Ormson, Kyle Jacobs,
Steve O'Halloran, James Tunnicliffe, Jordan Fagbola, Kieran Charnock, Aman Verma,
Ian Craney (Bobby Lofthouse), Phil Jevons (Brandon Windsor), Rhys Turner, Adriano
Moké (iain Howard)
Harrogate: Craig MacGillivray,
Matt Bloomer, David Merris, Adam Bolder (Dominic Rowe), Leigh Franks, Shane Killock,
Ashley Worsfold (Liam Hardy), Anton Brown (Tom Wright), Christian Hall, Mike Woods,
Craig Nelthorpe
MATCH
PROSPECTS
An extra visit to this nice
ground is far from the worst options in the cup draw. Hatters' followers will
be hopeful of at least an Edgeley Park replay following recent performances -
although Harrogate showed last season they are happy to pounce on defence
mistakes. Any repeat of that first half collapse could undoubtedly send the
County fans to the bar in even bigger numbers - and there was not a lot of room
to move in there last season.
OTHER
TIES INVOLVING CONFERENCE NORTH CLUBS
Barrow v Runcorn Town, Boston United v Dereham Town, Brackley Town v Farnborough, Bradford Park Avenue v AFC Fylde, Cleethorpes Town v North Ferriby United, Chorley v Glossop North End, Coalville
Town v Lowestoft Town, Colwyn Bay v Harrogate Railway
Athletic, Droylsden v Guiseley, Gainsborough Trinity v AFC Farsley, Hyde v Marine, Ilkeston v Solihull Moors, King's Lynn Town v Hednesford Town, Leamington
v Wroxham, Paulton Rovers v Gloucester City, Shildon v Stalybridge Celtic, Shortwood United v Oxford City, Tamworth v Rushall Olympic, Worcester
City v Rugby Town
The
third qualifying round is free of league fixtures for Vanarama Conference North
clubs so the only impact of results at this stage could be the possibility of
re-arranged games from later in the season. Its the fourth qualifying round before
our league games could be directly affected by postponements due to teams
progressing..
CONFERENCE NORTH FIXTURES
In my last update I mistakenly
said there were two Conference North games scheduled for 23 September. These
games are in fact due to be played on 30 September. Gloucester City will host
Solihull Moors and Worcester City will host Boston United if their cup ties are
resolved at the first attempt.
Ian Watts
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