Stockport County 0 Blackburn Rovers 1 ( Pre- Season Friendly) Saturday 2 August 2024

 

 

 

 

The day started so well, as we took in the excellent news that Louie Barry was back with us.

Louie`s `second coming` was beautifully choreographed by the Club on social media – perhaps their best work in that area yet, and enhanced nicely by a superb player intro by Club President Steve Bellis to the EP crowd at half time last night .

 County fans are suitably buoyed up ahead of what could be a challenging season , and it is  good to see that the Club is looking at having a serious go at it!

Sadly , last night`s game did not add to any momentum created as County went down to a 1-0 defeat against Championship side Blackburn Rovers in a frustrating match at Edgeley Park.

The idea to have us playing 2 matches against decent opponents within 24 hours , rightly or wrongly , always struck me as an odd arrangement to commit ourselves to especially when we are again tending a growing number of injuries, and Rovers will be contenders themselves one division above us!

But all the above said, to hold them to one goal was no disaster let`s say straight away, but it would have been good to see us put them under pressure in the last third but all our recognised forwards were elsewhere. It was brilliant to see Jack Stretton starting but he fell victim to another injury that took him off the park in the first half.

Last night`s County side looked interesting- the defence containing Knoyle, Horsfall and Pye in front of Addai  looked well fit for purpose pre kick off , and with Adaramola and Okeke providing width , Bate and Collar in charge in the middle I was not overly despondent before the off indeed particularly liking the idea of seeing Jack Stretton after such a long time!

That was how it looked at 7.30 but by 8.10 we had lost both Stretton and Knoyle to what looked bad knocks- and a side that had started with 2 triallist within  their numbers now had another 2, and matters were to get even worse in the second half when Tayo Adaramola , who I thought showed us many good things under pressure, also had to go off following a foul by Travis.

 Rovers tried to up their game as County`s injury list mounted.

Makhtar Gueye , a new signing this week by Blackburn ,from RWD Molenbeek, had looked a class act in the first half , and County had done well, Corey Addai in particular, to keep him score-less. Gueye  had been replaced at half time  by Ohashi, and County could and maybe should have taken advantage and opened the scoring…..twice early in the second half…but 2 chances came and went with more than a smidgeon of ill luck on the blues part.

Inevitably I suppose Rovers growing pressure had to pay off, and when Brittain`s cross hit a County hand in the box- the visitors had their chance. Addai had a terrific game , very impressive, but keepers are second favourites with penalties and Dolan made no mistake with this one giving Rovers the lead and the win.

Addai  deservedly won the M.O.M award, Bate was as busy as he usually is, Collar offered us moments to cling to with hope of more of the same to come, but overall the blues , especially after Stretton had departed, offered little in the way of threat or menace to spoil Rovers night in SK3.

Today at Carlisle hopefully will tell a different story!

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 A decent away following of over 500 at start!

 

 

Rovers new signing Makhtar Gueye might have scored within seconds of the start , instead sending his shot wide with Corey Addai exposed!

Gueye was clearly looking to spoil County`s evening but he needed to be sharper to succeed and Ethan Pye ensured he was thwarted again 6 minutes in doing enough to put the striker off and ensure his shot cleared the bar.

The pressure was clearly on the blues, and Gueye was the Rovers focus in this respect – Addai doing well 5 minutes later to sort another effort from the Rovers number nine after he had burst clear at speed.

Tayo Adaramola and Ethan Pye cooperated neatly on the break next, but although Tayo`s cross offered something , Rovers were able to clear their lines easily enough.

Time for Gueye again midway through the half but despite impressive work by Callum Brittain , his dangerous cross was kept from Gueye by even better work from Kyle Knoyle.

It was around this point when a foul on Stretton laid him out – momentarily- it did not look good for Jack- but he restarted play so maybe he would be OK.

The free kick came to nought, but it stirred the blues up a tad -excellent work from Bate , followed by a fine pass sent Okeke on a run that upped the pressure significantly on John Eustace`s side when his cross pinged into the back post.

Rovers sorted that danger and Okeke got in some neat play following that getting some decent crosses in ,but we still could not give Pears in the visitors goal meaningful work to do.

Eventually the tide turned, and Rovers pushed forward through Ryan Hedges as County overdid the fancy passing – Collar did good work to police this break and keep Rovers out, but we needed to be sharper on the ball and avoid a repeat.

The half hour saw Stretton having more treatment- he would be substituted 9 minutes later which was massively disappointing, as was the departure of Knoyle around the same time!

County were under pressure a fair bit now- Joe Rankin- Costello fluffing a chance after a series of free kicks and corners by Rovers , screwing an awful effort wide of goal when well set.

Again ,Rovers upped the revs through Gueye and a barnstorming run from him saw him surge clear through the middle. It looked a shoo-in as County`s defence wilted in response – it looked a certain goal and Gueye fired off a rip snorting shot from about half a yard out !

As I say, `a goal all the way!` but nobody had told Corey Addai ,and he got the smallish crowd roaring loudly as somehow he got to the ball pushing it up and over the bar- a fantastic save!

Rovers were not finished though, they looked to feast on an error by  County`s Trialist 8 , who I had been somewhat impressed with earlier. Once more the man of the moment for Blackburn was Gueye , but he ruined it by shooting wide – he really should have put that away!

Maybe we could make them pay in the second half!

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Well, we certainly tried ……

Much pressure ensued straight from the kick off, but it was on County by Rovers, and then it wasn`t as Tayo Adaramola ran the ball clear in exciting style teeing up a chance for Trialist 9- he could not put the chance away sadly.

Then within a minute County had another fleeting glimpse of glory, as Collar`s downward header bounced goalward- “yes” I thought , then “no” as Pears made the save and the chance was gone.

We needed one or other of those to have gone in, they didn`t and we were to pay rather quickly for that as Brittain`s cross from the left struck a County hand in the box giving Referee Tom Kirk the simple task of pointing to the spot.

Dolan did the rest- Addai looked impressive twixt the sticks at that moment, but Dolan was not influenced making short work of putting his kick away to give Rovers the lead.

There was lots of defending for the blues to do thereafter- Trialist 5 making a terrific block to thwart Ohashi….Addai getting another massive accolade for a stunning save to deny Dolan as Rovers piled on the pressure.

Sadly, midst all the pressure there were some iffy challenges and one such , by Lewis Travis, did for Tayo Adaramola`s game seeing him subbed!

County rang the changes for what remained of the game doing well in the circumstances to keep it at 1-0, Gardner , CJ, Hillary, Harry Johnson and Watson all getting minutes on the park.

There was time for Addai to enhance his CV again with another fine save  as Sondre Tronstad carved great chunks out of the County cover and keep it at 1-0, and that`s how it stayed- a deserved win for Rovers and much for us to ponder from the experience as we head for the new season!

 

 

Stockport County line up:-

Addai, Knoyle ( Triallist 5 38), Adaramola ( Hillary 61), Bate, Horsfall (Watson 87), Trialist 8 ( C Johnson 59),  Trialist 7( Gardner 59), Stretton (Triallist 9- 39), Okeke, Collar ( H Johnson 87), Pye

Subs not used: Metcalfe

 

Blackburn Rovers line up:-

Pears, Brittain, Carter, Hyam, Pickering, Tronstad, Travis (c), Rankin-Costello, Dolan, Hedges ( Sigurdsson 46), Gueye ( Ohashi 46)

Subs not used : Hilton, Eastham, O’Riordan, Batty, Markanday, , Buckley, Vale

 

Attendance: 2790 ( 516)

 

And Andrew Machin does the biz with this clutch of crowd shots......