Former Imps target, Tes Bramble came close a minute later bu his header went well wide of the target. Moses was booked on the 20^th minute mark when he fouled Poole. The Stockport man made a meal of it and was down for 4 minutes receiving treatment before miraculously defying the laws of medical science and running back on the pitch. The resultant free kick was put well well wide of the net. Frecklington was then gifted the chance of the game when Amoo played him through and he was left in a similar position to the goal he scored at Shrewsbury, let’s just say that it finished closer to the corner flag than the goal.

Shock! Jeff Hughes hits 2 corners in a row straight at the first defender. The Stockport fans thought they’d scored when an unmarked Malcolm headed across goal and it only just wide of the mark with everyone thinking the ball had entered the net. However, it was very close to entering the net again a minute later when from a corner, the ball deflected off of Lee Beevers and was heading goal wards before Jeff Hughes headed it off the line. That was the final action of a half where City had been second best.

County started the second half well and piled on the pressure until County broke and City had to react quickly to prevent Dickinson having a clean chance of goal. In response, City broke from this corner but Hughes’ cross wasn’t quite powerful enough to find an unmarked Forrester as a defender intervened. Brown was lucky to only receive a yellow card following a vicious sliding tackle on Poole with 10 minutes of the second half gone and it gave Stockport a free kick from wide over the wing. Rose took the kick and it seemingly flew over everyone before entering the net to give Stockport a goal that had been coming, it was the first goal City had conceded on the road since losing 1-0 to Boston, a bad omen?

Stockport continued their pressure and their 11^th corner almost resulted in a goal. The ball eventually fell out of the box before Dickinson found himself one-on-one with Marriott, with the keeper almost out of his box, Dickinson pulled it back for Bramble but Moses managed to clear the ball that was seemingly destined for the net. Brown then tried the spectacular as he tried a bicycle kick from a corner but it flew into the crowd. Lee Beevers’ hard work near the touchline won a free kick on the edge of the box, unsurprisingly Hughes hit it straight at the first defender but it went out for a corner, a corner that Hughes hit, you’ve guessed it, at the first defender .

City came close to getting an undeserved equaliser with 20 minutes to go when good work saw Frecklington burst forward but he was brought down in the area but the referee waved play on and to be fair, it did look like the youngster was trying to get the penalty rather than get forward. Marriott saved well from Bramble before the lively Dickinson was replaced by Le Fondre. Nat Brown was soon pushed forward as a striker. Following a foul, Beevers went off with an injured back, replaced by the returning Paul Morgan.

The game’s most controversial moment came in the 83^rd minute when the ball was played forward to Forrester, he and a defender tried to win the ball via header about 3 yards outside the box, then the goalkeeper, John Ruddy appears out of no-where and punches it well outside his area but the officials ignored this and allowed play to go on. Frecklington took a corner as the game headed towards injury time and although beating the first defender, didn’t cause the Stockport defence any problems and was easily cleared.

Marriott’s dodgy kicking then sealed the game for the hosts as a long ball forward was passed back to Marriott, despite having all the time in the world, he kicked he ball first time from the right hand edge of his box, it fell straight to Malcolm and he had the simple task of hitting the ball into the empty net and City were dumped off the top of the league with a bump.