County starting Eleven: fon Williams, Lynch, Griffin, Turnbull, Swailes (c), Trialist, Pilkington, Tansey, Conlon, Trialist, Rowe.
On a good looking pitch at Wincham Park, the home of Witton Albion, County started the evening wearing the brand new yellow and black away kit for the first time, the team featured the same back four that started on Saturday, with Danny Pilkington starting his first pre-season game wide on the right.
Eight minutes in and County had their first real attack of note as Barry Conlon found Danny Rowe on the left, unfortunately his cross couldn't find Conlon in the centre two minutes later and Rowe again found space down the line and delivered another low cross, this time it was Pilkington who just failed to connect.
On sixteen minutes the Caley keeper was forced to work for the first time as he came to punch a free kick from Greg Tansey after Conlon had been fouled from behind, another great run from Rowe found Pilkington wide right and his low cross miss kicked by two defenders before falling harmlessly for the keeper to collect, within a couple of minutes great work from Turnbull found Lynch out wide on the right but once more his cross didn't find a County forward.
Danny Pilkington turned his fullback inside out before being tugged back to earn a free kick, a County header just clearing the bar from the resulting cross. In the twenty sixth minute some nice interplay from Tansey, Rowe and Conlon saw Tansey in space but his 20 yard effort sailed over the bar, the game reached the halfway mark, with both sides looking comfortable in possession, without really creating any clear cut chances of note.
David Poole started the second half in place of Pilkington with James Vincent starting in place of one of the trialists, and within two minutes of the half fon Williams was forced into a smart save to his right as Caley broke down the right, on the hor mark two of County's trialists replaced Griffin and Conlon, one moving to left back the other going to lead the line, within a minute though firstly Swailes then Turnbull threw themselves into challenges which would have almost certainly hit the target, and from the resulting corner Ross Tokely headed over the bar whilst totally unmarked and with the goal at his mercy.
In the sixty fifth minute Jordan Rose and Richie Partridge replaced Danny Swailes and Danny Rowe, and almost immediately Rose fed Turnbull who strode forward before slotting through a ball which forced a corner, shortly afterwards Tom Fisher replaced Turnbull, who had taken a blow to the face a couple of minutes earlier.
GOAL!!! Caley took the lead in the 80th minute with a free header from Sutherland following a corner on the right.
The shock of conceding the first goal in pre-season so far saw County push forward with renewed vigour and purpose, and very quickly put the visitors on the back foot, unfortunately the final ball, which had been missing for much of the game, let the Hatters down, as the final whistle approached the Caley team appeared to be happy for County to keep the ball, a decision that nearly cost them as County finally forced the visiting keeper into a save in the last minute, with the referee blowing for full time a few seconds later.
Score: 0 - 1 (Sutherland) Attendance: 329
