Time to Show Our Colours

I’ve decided to start off each of my articles with a simple quiz question & will provide the answer when I next post. So, here is your first question - what is the only thing better than a viaduct?

No prizes, just for “fun”. You won’t be able to find the answers on the internet by the way.

The final pre-season game is behind us & the new season is at last clearly visible on the horizon.

Anyone who follows County away from home on a regular basis cannot help but be impressed with our travelling support. Statistically, we have topped the table in terms of the percentage of our home gate that travels away, for decades. Surely next season will be no different with so many new venues to explore.

Most supporters attending away games inevitably wear the club’s colours. The positive impact this has both in terms of lifting our team & also intimidating the opposition cannot be over-estimated. It is not that ridiculous to suggest that we may out-number our opponents’ fans at every game County play. 42 home games - how good would that be!  

County supporters are also very good at showing their colours when County play at Edgeley Park of course, but now we must do more.

The Borough of Stockport is under constant attack from a gargantuan all-consuming global corporate behemoth. This “brand” is relentlessly promoted day & night via every conceivable channel. The goal is simple, to indoctrinate the masses.

You can sympathise with those who just conform, as to follow the herd is the simplest thing to do. You’re told what your opinion is by a regurgitation of pundits & then simply recycle the dogma (like garbage) as required. Actually attending games is now the exception rather than the rule.

I refer of course to the most expensive, pervasive, over-hyped insidious reality TV show ever conceived.

But we are not concerned about reality TV; we are concerned with real life, real people & real football. 

Wearing Club colours when County are playing is all well & good, but we also need to try & do likewise whenever we are out & about in the Borough of Stockport. When we are working, volunteering, socialising & yes, even shopping (it has been known).

A supporter once said to me that we are in a war. Well we are, & must all do what we can to help with the war-effort.

By showing our colours across the Borough as often as possible, we will start to turn the tide. Even subtle displays of colour will help. We will collectively remind everyone that County are still here, that real football exists in the Borough of Stockport, that there is something more interesting to do than follow the plot of a hollow, pretentious, soulless soap opera in which all of the participants are multi-millionaires.

All we have is ourselves. But we are real. Stockport County is real. And, we are more important than some global multi-billion pound brand. We are the very soul & spirit of the Club.

We must now show that we are not prepared to simply go off quietly into the night. We have to meet this threat head on. We must all be active ambassadors of the Club. Every gesture by every supporter will have a positive effect & it will all add up. Surely, there is no better time to start to reclaim the streets of Stockport than the week running up to the start of a new season.

Let it be known that these views are my own, and do not necessarily reflect the collective views of Help the Hatters.