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Fantastic Hatters

8/10/2008

IT WAS no surprise at all to hear a delighted Jim Gannon salute a breath-taking second-half performance from his excellent young team on Friday night.

After watching his side come back from a goal down at the break to beat high-flying north west neighbours Oldham 3-1 in front of almost eight-and-a-half thousand at Edgeley Park, the County manager was full of praise.

He said: "That was a fantastic performance in the second half.

"Oldham are a great side and one packed with quality, but we deserved that.

"At half-time I encouraged the lads to keep their passing game going, and in the end that’s some of the best football I’ve seen us play in a while.

"Slowly but surely stuff we’re working on in training is starting to come off for us.

"We are seeing growth in a lot of the players, we’re getting better and better, both individually and collectively as a team."

Gannon went on to salute scorers Paul Turnbull and Peter Thompson, before once again acknowledging another superb effort - and a great final goal - from skipper-for-the-night, in the absence of Gareth Owen, Michael Raynes.

Gannon added: "Michael has got certain qualities, but I wasn’t sure he had that in his locker.

"What a finish it was. Michael put in another awesome performance tonight."

Oldham could have gone back to the top of League One had they beaten County on Friday, but their manager John Sheridan appeared frustrated with how his side had gone off the boil so alarmingly in the second period after an impressive first-half performance.

Sheridan said: "It wasn’t to be I suppose.

"But I am disappointed with the manner in which we conceded the three goals in the second half. The match was there for the taking for us, but we blew it.

"We’d been in a great position at half-time, but we let it slip.

"We’ve got two home games to come now though, and I’ll be after six points from them.

"That’s only our first defeat in nine games, it’s now up to us to pick ourselves up in the week and go again."