All Things Stockport County

CLUB v COUNTRY: Why choose? By Nick Lee. Euro 96 will forever go down as one of the greatest times in English sporting history........ Baddiel, Skinner and the Lightning Seeds had captured the mood of the nation with 'Three Lions'.... ........lad culture was on the rise, and County were starting to look quite good under Dave Jones. Hell, even the Gallagher brothers remained mildly tolerable. It'd be unfair to say it was Euro 96 that got me into football. My dad had taken me to Edgeley Park for the first time early in 95.  Big Kevin Francis scored the winner against Bournemouth and I was hooked. I went to every home game the following season, and got to see us narrowly lose to top flight Everton after three hours of fantastic football.  Looking back on it now, I think watching County in the 1995/96 season was the perfect preparation for the summer tournament. My uncle took me to Wembley to watch England's final war...

There were more than one or two tense expressions on the faces of Stockport County Supporters Cooperative Board members   …..it was Thursday 2 June … Dave & Billy up to their eyes...... .......and the culmination of weeks and weeks of patient negotiations , followed by a prolonged media focus publicising what was another bold move into largely uncharted territory by Events Manager Dave Marchbank and his team. Supporters Coop team ready to rumble! For the first time the Cooperative engaged in a three pronged link up with nationally famous CAMRA….Stockport charity Beacon Counselling and local brewers Cryptic Ales ,in a move designed to boost the Guardian Account which is steadily heading towards £20000 as I write this article. Dave M with CAMRA  PA The link up with CAMRA was a bold move on our part …another leap into the dark …. agreement being reached some months ago for the Thursday evening session at the truly massive Stockport...

Youth and Experience ! Way back in February……in Update 70 I think, I outlined how at a meeting held at the Fingerpost in Offerton, Help the Hatters , thanks to a generous bequest from the late Pauline Coddington,  were able to confirm the continuation of our policy of assisting the nurture of young County talent. Central to this policy is an understanding of the need to do this in concert with the needs and desires of the Manager, and with James Gannon able to make an appearance late on in the meeting, we stated our intention to support the contracts of 2 young County players. Things have progressed nicely since then and along with an impressive batch of quality signings, thanks to Help the Hatters, the Club were able to give contracts to two excellent young prospects….George West and Adam Etches.  We are delighted to have helped facilitate this as both players in our view have golden futures ahead of them given the right coaching and traini...