A different time. A different badge.
The same place.
Where the club and JKB lead, I take great pride in following. The 1996/97 season is embedded deep in County folklore: Dave Jones. Promotion. The League Cup run. Ian Dowie’s forehead.
These are stories that you can’t escape as a County fan and, really annoyingly, I just missed it. My first game at County was late the following season, by which time Jones was gone and a team still brimming with hall-of-fame material was making its way in what is now the Championship. However, with the club releasing its retro kits, Mike Flynn and Brett Angell appearing on youtube and Dave Challinor’s blue and white army aiming for promotion from the same tier as Dave Jones’, it feels like an excellent time for me to become better acquainted with one of the most successful seasons in the club’s history.
For me, this was a research project and an absolute joy to translate into – I hope – 2 blogs, roughly dealing with each half of the season. For others, this will be a trip down memory lane, and I’m extremely fortunate to enjoy ready access to a number of people who can offer a first-hand account. So for this blog I’m delighted to say that TSBW has pooled resources, with a number of regular podders and bloggers contributing their thoughts. My thanks, first and foremost, to all of them; I genuinely loved reading the responses I got.
So let’s party like it’s 1996!
Ahhh, the 90s. This was a world where barely anyone had a mobile phone, where John Major was Prime Minister, the Spice Girls were at no. 1 and people still cared who was at no. 1. Oasis were busy being cool as fuck over there, and would play their famous Knebworth gig that summer. A pint (allegedly) cost about £1.70, and I did not care about that because I was 6 years old.
In English football, no one had heard of VAR, xG or a ‘pressing trigger’. 4-4-fucking-2 was ubiquitous, with the only real variation a 4-5-1 that basically admitted you were going to lose the game. Sides using fewer than 3 substitutes was common. This was a more innocent time, i.e. people literally got away with more. MUCH more. Defenders were prized for their ability to put strikers in hospital. Men were men, and flashy wingers could sure run fast as a result. The Premier League was but 4 seasons old and featured only 2 managers from outside Great Britain and Ireland (Arsene Wenger and Ruud Gullit.) The PFA team of the year that season would feature 9 Englishmen and an Irishman and yes, it WAS Roy Keane. The revolution into an all-consuming, never-ending, money-making cosmopolitan behemoth was underway, but the effects had not yet fully taken hold.
In the borough, Dave Jones was starting his second season in charge of County, having replaced the legend that was Danny Bergara at the back end of the 94/95 season, so let’s start there. Dave Jones replaced Danny flipping Bergara. Surely the fans were upset at seeing Danny go?
Steve Bardsley, preview/review pods:
I was absolutely gutted at the time. I really couldn’t believe it and all I heard was there had been an incident where he allegedly punched Brendan and I was devastated he’d gone. At the time I didn’t know anything about Dave Jones as back then we just didn’t have the data and knowledge that is available today.
JKB, of County diary blogs fame:
The main thing I remember is playing Shrewsbury away on 1st April 1995, the day after the sacking. We didn’t know who had got the job at that stage, and County fans were singing “Nobody’s blue and white army!”
I don’t remember any animosity towards Dave Jones but there was a fair bit towards Brendan Elwood.
Jimmy Harmer, review pods:
Danny was a legend and whilst we now know that there were frictions behind the scenes between Brendan and Danny, at the time I don’t recall knowing this (where was social media when you needed it!). Brendan was a canny Yorkshireman and wasn’t wealthy in the terms of football club owners we now see, so I probably thought he was doing it on the cheap at the time. The players that were recruited, again from memory, were a bunch of misfits from other clubs generally higher up the pyramid where perhaps their careers had stalled due to injury or being out of favour. We didn’t spend big at the time either, so my expectations would have been on the lower side.
Jimmy’s last point on the players was, of course, confirmed by Tony Dinning at the recent TSBW event at the Armoury: a team of ‘waifs and strays,’ as he put it. But my word, what those waifs and strays would go on to achieve that season. The squad that year (understandably, given what happened) reads like a who’s who of County Greatness: Flynn, Gannon, Bennett, Cooper, Dinning, Marsden, Armstrong, Angell. You couldn’t move for double-letters oozing off an Edgeley Park future-legend sporting an ‘SCFC’ badge on his impossibly baggy shirt. (Exactly why said badge replaced the coat-of-arms design for 2 years between 1996-1998, Google does not report, but County was pretty flippant with its badges throughout the 1900s, with a good 7 designs to pick from for the discerning historian.)
Despite the line-up, County made their customary (unless you ask Mr Stott) iffy start, recording 4 losses and 2 draws in their first 6 league games (you can view a full list of matches here.) Deliciously, our first two games of the season were against Chesterfield and Crewe, though sadly not in that order, and the Chesterfield fixture was the first of two legs in the first round of the competition that would come to define that season: the League Cup. It’s fair to say that teams up and down the country had a different attitude towards the competition back then.
Jimmy harmer:
[The League Cup] was a major tournament, there weren’t a million spots up for grabs for top flight teams to play European football. Teams wanted to win a domestic trophy and all the teams we played in that League Cup run took the games seriously and played very strong teams.
JKB:
The first two rounds were two-legged affairs then; it’s hard to imagine these days when it’s plain that many clubs view having to play the games at all as an inconvenience and extra time and replays are a thing of the past.
The fact that the club played the same team in the cups and league then meant that they took it seriously and the fans’ opinions tended to fall in line.
Nick ‘Reidy’ Reid, TSBW blogger:
I crunched some of the numbers on how many players we used last season [2024/25] (FA Cup third round, through to the EFL Trophy knock-out stages and of course the play-off games) and compared it to the number of games played and players used in 96/97. 24/25 season – 34 players played five games or more across 56 competitive games. In 96/97 it was 24 players for 67 games.
Steve Bardsley:
It was very much about winning everything and the cup runs were all very important and an absolutely amazing experience. I remember thinking this could impact the season in the league and I strongly believe we would have been champions if it wasn’t for the cup run but I wouldn’t change anything. Runners up with the cup run was amazing.
In September, Stockport hit their stride, with a run of 6 straight wins including the 2 legs against Sheffield Utd and a memorable 2-5 result at Bramhall Lane.
Jimmy Harmer:
We just felt invincible, and I am convinced that carried into the league games. Our core of key players remained injury free despite the rigours of the number of games we played.
I was a first year University student in Sheffield so to go to Bramhall Lane on a September evening and hit them for 5 goals was a dream come true. Richard Harnwell, former club historian and commentator (sadly no longer with us) – listening to his commentary from the Sheffield United game… he was an absolute icon from that period. I bought the 96/97 highlights video (as did most County fans) and remember watching it repeatedly listening to Richard going mental every time we scored a goal.
‘WHAT A BEAUTY!’ ‘Beauty’ may be doing a bit of heavy lifting, watching some of these goals back, but the commentary is certainly memorable ‘I’VE WAITED ALL MY LIFE FOR THAT!’ would have to wait for the following season, however.
At the time, Sheffield Utd were in Division 1, and would beat Man City 2-0 four days later. But County were only just getting started. 4 more wins in 6 league games followed, seeing us climb to 11th in the league table after that horror-show opening run, before their next league cup fixture at Ewood Park against Blackburn Rovers. And this is where it started to get really, really good.
On 22nd October, Stockport County turned over the former Premier League champions on their own patch. This was not, it has to be said, Dalglish’s side: Ray Harford was manager, for a start. Shearer and Sutton were gone, as were Graeme le Saux and David Batty. The team that night still contained 5 English top flight champions, but they were busy using their medals to prop up the PL table by that point.
JKB
Alan Shearer hadn’t long since left for Newcastle. The one thing that sticks in my mind, apart from wishing the final whistle would hurry up, was our fans singing “Where’s your Shearer gone? Far, far away” to the tune of “Chirpy, Chirpy Cheep Cheep.”
Stockport, meanwhile, travelled north after scrambling around for shirts. Blue home kit? That clashes with Blackburn. White away kit? That clashes with the other half of Blackburn. County asked their kit supplier that year, Adidas, for help, and on the face of it (there’s no way to check this) they responded in a very kit-supplier way. I.e. they flung us any old shit that they had too much stock of and couldn’t shift. The result, though, has become iconic. Earlier that summer, Romania had competed at Euro ‘96 with no distinction whatsoever, losing all 3 of their games to France, Spain and Bulgaria. No wonder their yellow shirts with 3 blue stripes down each arm weren’t exactly sought after. The solution was simple and enduring, despite existing for exactly one game only:
Take that yellow shirt, with Romania iconography all through the yellow.
Slap the ‘SCFC’ and Robbie’s Best Bitter on the front.
Wear existing blue shorts and socks.
Go forth, and start knocking out Premier League sides.
Maybe Mike Flynn could never throw it that far now. He’s into his 50s, after all, but more pertinently footage from this season reveals that a second row of advertising hoardings have been installed closer to the pitch, meaning he wouldn’t have had an Olympic long-jump sized run-up. Brett Angell did Brett Angell things in the air (cause havoc) and a shabby own-goal off one unlucky shoulder is all it took to send the away fans home in absolute ecstasy. Ray Harford would resign 3 days later.
Some indifferent league form followed, and we were still 11th having played 20 games by the time the next round arrived on 27th November. This time, County travelled south to face a West Ham side containing Slaven Bilic, Frank Lampard and Iain Dowie. If Blackburn were a team in trouble, West Ham at the time were mid-table; 13th on the day. Răducioiu put the Hammers in front before Tony Dinning robbed a ball in midfield and scored a superb solo effort to force the replay.
Steve Bardsley
To go to that ground and come away with a draw was just incredible.
(A really jammy) JKB
I was able to go to the West Ham (A) game and get paid for it! My employer had a depot on the Thames and wanted someone to help with the stocktaking. I got my travel, hotel and food paid for.
There was a decent turn out of County fans for a midweek game in London, I remember them singing “Northern England, northern England” a fair bit along with all the usual songs.
The team must have thought it felt incredible too, because they proceeded to win the next 8 out of 10 games, with 2 draws. Progress was made in the FA Cup (away at Mansfield) the league (up to 8th) and something called the ‘Auto Windscreens Shield’ (see you later, Donny.) Then came the replay against West Ham at Edgeley Park. Julian Dicks headed West Ham in front in pretty nasty conditions.
Reidy
I remember it was close to Christmas (looking back it was 18th Dec) and the game clashed with a school Christmas Carol service at St Mary’s Parish next to the White Hart in Cheadle. There were a few of us unhappy about the compulsory attendance at the church, including the PE teachers!
Steve Bardsley
I remember the rain and thinking there’s no way this game will go ahead, but West Ham at home is remembered for the greatest own goal of all time
Jimmy Harmer
An Ian Dowie bullet header own goal.
Reidy
For a guy who went on to be known for other ridiculous things like ‘bouncebackability’ the OG became quite iconic. Looking back on footage of that goal with the benefit of more maturity, the Flynny long throw and header back in to the box in the driving rain was something to behold
As you watch highlights of these games back, Mike Flynn long throws feature heavily. This was no different. A missile into the Railway End was initially dealt with, but only as far as Flynn again who this time headed back into the danger area. The ball was flicked on and there he was, leaping into the night sky like a salmon strapped to a potato, powering a frankly perfect header past Miklosko into the bottom right corner. Andy Gray (thanks Reidy) called it ‘a wonderful striker’s header’ in commentary and it’s tricky to disagree. I may never tire of watching it.
Stockport celebrated Christmas with a 2-3 win over Wrexham at the Racecourse, which was probably less satisfying back then, and by the time we thrashed Millwall – a close rival in the league – 5-1, only Brentford and Luton had more points at the top.
It was shaping up to be a very, very happy new year…
