Vanarama National League North: Bradford Park Avenue 0 Stockport County 2

BRADFORD Park Avenue’s final home game of the season ended in defeat as two late goals kept Stockport County’s slim promotion hopes alive.

A defeat for the Hatters would effectively have ended their season but the three points leaves them two points outside the play-off places in Vanarama National North with one game remaining.

County’s final fixture is at home, and Edgeley Park will be rocking after the win at Horsfall Stadium, which they had to be patient about.

Even a draw would have ended their faint hopes, so when substitute Josh Amis broke the deadlock in the 81st minute, it sparked a pitch invasion from the near-1,000 strong throng of visiting supporters.

When the lively Danny Lloyd chipped Avenue keeper Ed Hall just into the first of five added minutes, there was another breakthrough by the fans, but only a few fans penetrated the cordon that time as the well-organised stewarding did its job.

Avenue boss Mark Bower was pleased with the efforts of his depleted squad, saying: “I thought we had chances in that first half and could have been in front by half-time.

“They (Stockport) are a very good side and we restricted them to a handful of chances because we defended so well.

"We had quite a few players out, and we missed Oli Johnson up front, but I thought Jamie Spencer had a very good game.

"He took a knock in the second half, and after that his performance lost a little bit so we had to take him off.”

Avenue could have opened the scoring in the seventh minute after skipper Ryan Toulson and Nicky Wroe combined, with the latter’s cross to the far post finding Gavin Rothery but his effort was palmed for a corner by Ben Hinchliffe.

Both Bower and his opposite number Jim Gannon made changes, some of them enforced, and the match was always in the balance until the last nine minutes.

Bower added: “Ed (Hall) came in and he couldn’t be faulted for either goal - in fact he played really well.

“Ed has been unlucky recently because Spider (Jon Worsnop) has been in great form, and Ed couldn’t even play in the County Cup because he was cup-tied, but he’s waited for his chance and he looked as though he’d never been away.

“He looked supremely confident when coming for crosses and made very good saves when called on.

"He showed the qualities of a top keeper, although, as I’ve said, he wasn’t overworked because Stockport didn’t have that many chances.”