All Things Stockport County

The curtain was brought down   on County's pre-season, today at Edgeley Park, where, after a series of interesting and meaningful friendlies against the likes of Preston and Bolton Wanderers and others , the blues entertained Barrow....the Bash Street Kids of National League football! Not a Barrow team photo  apparently. The result was a 1-0 win for the Cumbrian side but the game was comprehensively ruined, as a spectacle, by the sight of Barrow continually hauling County players to the floor- usually but not exclusively Oswell. The approach owed more to the WWE or World Wrestling codes rather than any rule book devised by the footballing authorities- it was truly abysmal stuff   from the visitors, rather answering my pre match question of `why so few actually travel from Barrow to watch the side?'.  Most stayed in Barrow ! Would you ? I certainly wouldn't! It was a pity really from a purely footballing standpoint , as Paul Cox's s

One last pre-season clash then,   before County prepare for their first ever game against Spennymoor Town. Saturday's opponents are probably the one's that County would most realistically like to emulate over the next few years. Since climbing back into the National League Premier division in 2015 they have established themselves and built their side up to one that considers a promotion challenge a reasonable prospect. Those two seasons saw them finish 11th and 7th. One policy decision that has played its part in the progress Barrow have made is the switch of their training base to Hopwood Hall near Rochdale. This has allowed them to attract players from a wider area of the country, their location as one of the outposts of football having previously deterred players. Last summer they returned there after a year away as the managers were wary of the injuries that the squad picked up at their new base, which were felt to be directly related to the artificia

Faced by the not inconsiderable challenge of newly promoted Championship side Bolton Wanderers , County gave their supporters more reasons to be cheerful, with a performance brimming over with foot sure excellence from the very first minute of what was an absorbing encounter, at Edgeley Park last night. It really was a top notch showing from the white shirted blues, who matched their illustrious opponents   ,from the second tier of the Football League,move for move and idea for idea throughout. Bolton , with Derik Osede set up in front of a back three ,   came to play, showing us   some skilful stuff at times, but in response County's defensive work was as immaculate as I have seen it, and there was a total absence of the first half problems that afflicted us against Macclesfield on Saturday.  Derik Osede linkman for Wanderers. But I thought it was in midfield that we shone the brightest with captain Winter and Walker, doing an immense amount of valuabl