Stockport County 1 Blackburn Rovers 6 ( League Cup Round 1) Tuesday 13 August 2024

 

 

 

Weather-wise last night was the most miserable evening imaginable -as Edgeley Park was drenched in the falling wet stuff from early doors.

For County fans there was no consolation on the park as John Eustace`s Blackburn Rovers side from the Championship beat an extremely young County side  6-1 thoroughly outclassing them in the process.

If it was totally understandable that DC should seek to husband his playing resources and shield his squad from possible further injuries, it was hard to watch at times as County struggled to get in a game that the Lancastrian side dominated from the first blast of the referee`s whistle to the last.

The youngsters to their immense credit kept plugging away , and managed to nick a goal back as one of the County teenagers on view ,  Nathan Mapengu , fired a Jayden Fevrier corner home , but stopping what from early on was `one way traffic`, in Ben Hinchliffe`s direction, was a lost cause!

It was totally fitting that County supporters waited on to applaud our young team off after the match but let’s hope the youngsters football journey with us is altogether a happier experience going forward, and County supporters can get back to watching the blues enjoy life in League One starting Saturday at the seaside!

 

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Straight from the off the dye was clearly cast- Rovers fielded their full-strength side brimming with names gagging to make good in the Championship and  County answered by playing a starting 11 and bench containing a prodigious number of very young players with zero first team experience.

  Great turn out from Blackburn !

 

 

 

 

The first 6 or 7 minutes were spent watching  County under heavy pressure as time after time Rovers threatened largely through Yuki Ohashi – Hinchliffe twice making good saves  to deny him - Sam Hughes and Nathan Mapengu adding their two pennyworth with timely clearances on other fraught occasions.

I hoped that the on-field storm would abate , but it didn`t and as Rovers surged forward the highly rated Sammy Szmodics increased County`s anxiety state by thumping a superb shot home from the edge of the box to give his side the lead.

Things got no better for the blues indeed only an excellent sliding stop by Nathan Mapengu prevented Omashi from reaching a peach of  ball from Szmodics in the box.

Szmodics and Omashi looked the prime movers for the visitors and County somehow had to find a way to combat their intensity and drive.

Touray did well to block Szomics , on 16 minutes, and County did offer hope of some response , winning a free kick a couple minutes later but that brief rally was quickly put down by a solid Rovers back line.

Mainly it was a case of County having to soak up a shed load of pressure hoping that Ben could continue to save them as required, but they were beginning to be overwhelmed by the intensity and regularity of the Rovers attacks- undone a second time as under intense pressure they allowed Andraes Weiman to slot the ball home unattended.

After just 22 minutes County were 0-2 down- could they respond….give us something to cheer?

Jayden Fevrier certainly tried to- treating the home specs to a virtuoso run that took him from stand side inside to the edge of the box .

Tyler Onyango , who I have liked a lot in the short time he`s been with us, was being used in midfield at this point and took it on from Jayden sending a probing ball into the box where, sadly ,County fluffed their lines allowing Rovers to clear their lines.

We really needed a goal …a shot even , and Rovers were quick to punish the blues as a rapid break by the visitors saw the lethal  Szmodics  score his side`s third goal from close in.

County`s torment did not abate  -Touray doing well to cut Harry Pickering off as he looked on to add a fourth.

But we did not have to wait long for that fourth Rovers goal, and it involved Pickering again his neat cross finished off brilliantly by Omashi`s glancing header that gave Ben no chance whatsoever.

 

Sam Hughes meanwhile was on the deck and struggling with injury for the second time in the match- there was a certain inevitability about it as he was replaced by Callum Camps with half time nearing- Onyango switching to centre back.

The 42^nd minute saw County supporters cheering loudly as County won a corner . It was a decent one too reaching Freddie Redshaw at the back post, but his header did not trouble Aynsley Pears in the Rovers goal.

Added time was made up with Rovers piling the pressure on County`s angst ridden defence- corners raining in  ….headers….shots and Arnor Sigurdsson almost squeezed one in 3 minutes into the period- being thwarted as Hinchliffe`s dive saw him push the ball around the post for a corner.

The County back line did well to not go further behind during this spell- Hinchliffe, Renshaw, Onyango and Camps particularly so – in the end I was relieved to see us go in just  0-4 down

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The re-start saw County shuffle their available pack of youngsters, bringing Bruno Cina and Rhys Watson on for Lee Williams and Freddie Renshaw- Cina bringing a rare smile to our faces by getting booked within a minute of coming on- clearly made of the right stuff is this lad!

Ben was busy again as Rovers pushed on, but the supreme optimists amongst us might have taken pleasure seeing John Buckley ping an excellent quality ball into the County box where Szmodics put his shot wide of goal.

Well, I took pleasure in that anyway!

And again ,with Onyango`s work at the back, but when we won a free kick, we did not press it home allowing Rovers to hit us on the break.

But there was  pleasure too midst the blitz from Blackburn , as the best of a raft of half chances for Rovers fell to Sigurdsson   and his shot was again laid waste by some top work by Ben.

Then our pleasure went into overdrive as County  started to show signs of attacking life- Jid Okeke unlucky and badly served by the Danny Stand liner . But County won another corner .

Fevrier took this, his delivery causing no end of difficulties for the visiting defenders who were punished fulsomely by Nathan Mapengu who fired home brilliantly to bring County back to 1-4 .

The Cheadle End went AS – a moment to enjoy for sure and a great one for Nathan who clearly has a bright future ahead of him!

Back came Rovers however and Ben did exceptionally well to keep a shot from the much-vaunted Makhta Gueye out with less than 20 minutes left.

Sadly, Gueye had the last laugh , heading home with some power when the resultant corner came his way!

We were 1-5 down now and it might have been 1-6 but for Ben as a brilliant diving save denied Rovers with Gueye, Sigurdsson and Ohashi vying for a tilt at Ben`s windmill!

On it went…..Vale missing a chance on 77 minutes his shot blocked from a corner…..Sigurdsson picking Omashi out with a neat cross only for his shot to thud into the angle of bar and post before going to safety.

But Rovers were in irresistible mood and form and would not be denied for long and their sixth goal was no real surprise – the surprise being it took until 88 minutes for it to arrive, and it arrived via Ohashi`s cross . This had pink shirted Rovers queuing for a shot but Vale did the biz and very well too scoring from what looked the acutest of angles !

 

Six – one down was bad news , but County to their credit kept trying-doing their best- Okeke again not served well by the liner, and Odin Bailey served even worse by Referee Ross Joyce who earned a ripe old raspberry  from yours truly by needlessly booking Bailey with seconds to go.

In the end, a sound beating, one that it is to be hoped does not have a negative effect on either our youngsters or our senior players who got a hint of Championship quality last night as we aim our sights in that direction.

To our young players I say we are proud of you there is no shame in losing to a quality side playing well, and I  look forward to our senior players bringing smiles back to County faces on Saturday at Bloomfield Road- see you there!

Meanwhile -following  the last match report( v Cambridge Utd)

https://hedgegrower.blogspot.com/2024/08/stockport-county-2-cambridge-united-0.html hedgegrower was contacted by a well respected animal lover midst the County Family who pointed out that the Hippopotamus  does not have any prey to chase , they are veggies and more likely to be running away from a predator- they did concede however that the Hippo can indeed fly!

 

 

Stockport County line up:-

Hinchliffe, Mapengu (Lawless-Williams 82'), Hughes (Camps 39'), Touray, Okeke, Onyango, Bailey, Redshaw (Cina 45'),C Gardner, Williams (Watson 45'), Fevrier (Lewis 83')

Subs not used : Diamond, Barry, Metcalfe, , S Gardner.

 

Blackburn Rovers line up:-

Brittain (Duru 45'), Carter (McFadzean 45'), Batth, Pickering, Weimann (Gueye 63'), Buckley, Tronstad (Travis 63'), Sigurdsson, Szmodics (Vale 63'), Ohashi

Subs not used:  Hyam, Dolan, Rankin-Costello, Hilton.

 

Attendance: 5790 ( 1279)

hedgegrower