10 man City go down to relegated County

By Andy Leggott
March 20 2002

The real Manchester City returned for what we can only hope is a one night appearance. Bogey team, Stockport County, once more deprived City of the points. This time taking all 3 of them with a 2-1 win at Edgley Park.

Kevin Keegan was forced into one change, Howey replacing the injured Tiatto and Wiekens pushing into midfield, and elected to give Jon Macken his first full start, dropping Huckerby to the bench.
Despite being the first team to be relegated in any division this season, County came out with a purpose. The City players were given no time to settle and the early exchanges were pretty even, with neither goalkeeper being threatend.
City broke the deadlock in the 18th minute, Jon Macken notching his second goal for the blues. Bernabia's neat one two with Goater led to the Algerian shooting, Dibble failed to hold the ball and Macken pounced from the rebound.
With City taking the lead the visiting support expected them to take the game by the scruff of the neck and end the County hoodoo. A major obstacle arrived on the half hour though, Goater being sent off for deliberate hand ball. Beckett missed the resulting penalty, skying it over the bar, but City were once more down to 10 men with a large chunk of the game remaining. Kevin Keegan wasn't happy and said so afterwards.

"I don't know what Shaun Goater was thinking of. I have told him that I don't like what happened. I even think that Stuart Pearce would have cleared the ball off the line. Shaun had to go and from then on it was always going to be difficult. It was a bad result for us."

The first half finished 1-0 to City and despite the loss of Goater they still looked in control.
County came out in the second half sensing they could get something from the game, City, for a change, seemed to sit back and settle for the 1-0 victory, Mettomo coming on for the injured Wright-Phillips. Despite a fine save from a Mettomo shot by Dibble, City threatend less and less as the half wore on. It was perhaps crying out for Huckerby's pace to trouble the County defence but Keegan resisted the temptation to change.
Then, with only 5 minutes remaining, County struck. A McLachlan cross was met by a Hardiker back header and County were level. Worse was to follow in injury time as Hardiker struck once more to give County the win.
Make no mistake this was an embarrassment, County are a poor side and as such should have been out of the game before the sending off. All credit to them though for the spirit shown, although, if a supporter, I'd want to know why they couldn't show it every week. City need to get this one out of the system, get a few injured players back and embark on another run until the end of the season. We're still 5 points clear and our destiny is in our own hands. Bring on Rotheram.