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Gannon's talking-to proves inspirational

19/12/2007

A HALF-TIME talking-to from County boss Jim Gannon appeared to do the trick at Macclesfield on Saturday.

The first 45 minutes at the Moss Rose saw the hosts well on top, but Gannon’s men dug in and held out, and then went on to bag two match-winning strikes in the second half from Liam Dickinson [62 minutes] and Adam Proudlock [90].

Gannon said: “We were a little bit on the back foot in the first half.

“Credit to Macclesfield, they played really well.

“They stretched us, they made our back four drop deep, we just couldn’t contain them. We were fortunate to come in at half-time with a clean sheet.

“At half-time I did talk to the players about how to play and the type of service we should be getting to the front players, and in the second half they did provide much better service.

“We changed the corners and fortunately that paid off for us. It got us the decisive goal.

“For Liam’s goal we delivered the ball into a great area, and he has shown before that he is quite potent in the air from that type of delivery.”

It was an excellent second straight victory for the resurgent Hatters, one that fired them into the top half of the table for the first time since early October.

However, it is too early to be talking about potential play-off pushes, as Gannon was keen to acknowledge.

The County gaffer added: “It is a long season, we’re not even half way there yet.

“We’ve had a difficult three or four months with injuries and things, but you can see that the boys are starting to take some of the ideas on board now.

“There’s still too much inconsistency in certain performances though. We do need to keep on top of ourselves and work hard in training to improve on that consistency.

“Hopefully we can then push on and improve.”

Macc boss Ian Brightwell said after Saturday’s game: “I thought we played really well in the first half and did more than enough to win the game.

“I am disappointed with our finishing, but with that said their keeper made a couple of outstanding saves.

“We have got to take the positive from this and continue to work hard and I am sure the results will come.”