All Things Stockport County

With every new season, the fans drift back. A different shirt means another new pack.  But the look on their faces is never a basis for cutting the team any slack. An adrenalin buzz in a sad, sad world; a shot in the arm as the team is unfurled. But the hopeful beginning and prospect of winning, disappear as the insults are hurled. The long suffering fans count the years and the losses, the boardroom upheavals and ejected bosses. Their blue veneration dips with each relegation as they archive each fallen colossus. Who has this recipe for a winning mentality? To Stockport County, this is not a formality. No use chanting past glories; can't survive on grand stories. Today's problems drown sentimentality. On the pitch we need leaders who perform every fixture, a manager who sees every inch of the picture. We need Edgeley Park heroes, County scores without zeros and some money to add to the mixture. Yes, County have fallen to a lowly place; They ...

After a series of depressing results in the opening games of their first season in the Conference North, it was abundantly clear that County supporters, who had thus far turned out in numbers, needed to see evidence that things just might change for the better.                                                       Was the visit of Colwyn Bay to Edgeley Park, the right occasion for such a turn around? I would have thought so especially as the Welsh side had not won a game so far this season. It`s true that County are winless as well, and that our visitors had a couple of familiar faces in their midst in Cameron Darkwah and Paul Ennis- a fact that usually works strongly against us, but even so surely it was time for Cou...

Over 16500 people are so naffed off with life on this planet apparently, that they have signed up for a trip to Mars in 2023( No air, water or food on arrival, and definitely no return ticket!). I found myself asking just what would drive someone....anyone....to give up life as they know it and opt instead for certain death? Well today, after witnessing County`s latest abject display against near neighbours Altrincham, at the J Davidson Stadium, I am resolved to sign up immediately, and head for the canals and arid plains of the red planet! I may not be alone either, as 2000 or so County supporters made their way across Cheshire to urge their team on. The fans got little return for the effort they put in either, as the County team were pretty much A.W.O.L  for 90 minutes of the game, going down to a thoroughly deserved 3-0 defeat to an Altrincham side that was vastly superior in every aspect of the game! They were sharper....faster ...more inventive ....livelier...more resili...

The first week for some time without a Tuesday Working Party  had a feel of the unreal about it- with no painting to do life seemed oh so pointless, until County came away with one at Borough Stadium Workington- catch the match report at http://hedgegrower.blogspot.com Actually life has been far from pointless really and HtH have found loads to do and plan to do in the 7 days since the last Update. Here`s a run down;- Update  on Fitzy. He is slowly progressing and managing to get out occasionally whilst taking things slowly. He made it to Edgeley Park last Saturday for the Boston game  , accompanied by Mike and Natalie, and he was overwhelmed by the kindness shown to him by countless supporters. He was disappointed with the result of course but your support made up for that , and he sends his good wishes to all! Alan Lord`s Profootball Academy Help the Hatters have agreed to become a sponsor of Alan`s Academy for aspiring 16-18 year old foo...

Ah.....Workington..... it`s not the place that immediately springs to mind when thinking of where to go! County`s last visit was back in 1977, the season that Workington(then Town) took their leave of the Football League, but I wasn`t there and cannot report on the experience. Go back almost 2000 years and the Romans were in the vicinity. I wasn`t there for that fixture either, but can report that they built a fort, to keep the Scoti out, and promptly left when the chill Cumbrian air got too much for them. Then there was James I ( circa 1603) who built a dungeon and had as many as 100 poor souls at a time imprisoned therein in a space of no more than 5 square metres. Unsurprisingly there is no documentation in existence to tell us just what the eventual fate was of the many hundreds so confined. We just do not know what happened to them! Much the same might be said of County in the first half last night as they struggled to make an impression in a game in which they were  a touc...

I can't say I have ever really been motivated to participate in sport. Even as a Doncaster schoolgirl, being forced out onto a hockey pitch in the middle of winter dressed in T shirt and navy blue knickers was akin to the worst kind of Victorian child cruelty. I applaud Danny Kaye's sentiments when he said his favourite form of exercise was jumping to conclusions. That's not to say I aspire to couch potato status, but I have always preferred the gentler option of watching sport to actually participating in it. I grew up with an elder brother who threw himself into cycling in the manic way elder brothers often do. These were the days of Tommy Simpson and Beryl Burton, sporting icons who inspired a generation to get on their bikes and compete. I recall being mildly intrigued but unable to understand or appreciate the appeal of flogging your body until it became a sweatball!! In the winter months, my bizarre brother would wrap layers of newspaper around his torso before g...

If Stockport County `s supporters thought that the discovery of 60 `new’ Barbara Cartland manuscripts was the scariest thing likely to happen in their world this week......they were entirely wrong. True there was a game to play against Boston United, who had not shown up in these parts since 2007, but surely, even taking the unremitting unreliability of using pre season form as a guide to league form, County would see this challenge off! Well that I am sure was the plan, but the execution fell some way short of this lofty aim, as County surrendered a full hand of points to the Lincolnshire side with the lamest of lame performances in front of well over 3000 at Edgeley Park! It was awesomely bad ...as .......after coming back from being a goal down, and going in at half time level at 1-1, County`s  game then disintegrated in an orgy of casually misplaced passes and slack marking. Hardly anyone escaped blame although I thought Dennis was an exception, hardly wasting a pass whils...