So cards on the table, and by way of introduction: I class myself as an ‘exile’ because I don’t live near Stockport and I don’t get to a lot of games. My following County has been reduced to (very largely) a combination of FotMob, the occasional TV game and fan-produced content (ahem) since, roughly, 2008.
Stockport County, as we all know, is a football club with incredible support. My personal journey began when Gary Megson sat in the dugout and Jim Gannon was ghosting in at the back post. All through the dark years I never considered even looking at another club and like many of you I faced the terrifying prospect of being clubless as we stared down the barrel of starting a second season in administration.
I don’t want to sound soppy here, but anyone who continued to go to matches during those years: you have my heartfelt thanks. Seriously. You helped keep us going, and I hope the success we’re enjoying now is some repayment for that blind faith that, one day, things would come good again. You guys are a different breed.
As much as I wish I could claim I was one of you, I can’t. Just after the play-off win under Jim I buggered off to uni and I just didn’t have the cash to travel back to games. I had to look up results and league positions with not so much as a smartphone and…yeah. Yeah. 3 seasons later we’re out of the EFL. At this point I think I had my first smartphone but I’d never heard of Yellow Board and does anyone remember what FotMob was like back then for the lower leagues? Depressing score followed depressing score, with no further information. Momentum graph? No chance mate. Let’s not dwell on it.
Of course it’s far, far easier – not to mention enjoyable – these days. Even if you can’t travel there are ways and means of watching every game, if you have the will. This is maybe where I’ll start to raise eyebrows from some because… I don’t. I’m really sorry, but I don’t. Life is busy, and between 2 young kids, other sports, other commitments and a wife who hates football I barely watch a game, let alone spend thousands of pounds on season tickets. I don’t even live all that far away, in the grand scheme of things (other side of Sheffield, since you ask) so I certainly can’t compare myself to the wonderful people in South America or Japan or wherever who make a ridiculous effort to watch the game, come hell or high water. But there it is. I belong to a section of the fanbase where football doesn’t quite make the ‘top 5 priorities’ list, and as mad as that sounds I’m sure there must be a few of us.
I don’t want people to get the wrong idea: the fact I don’t watch many games live does not make me less bothered about them, because I’m not. To me, it just means I follow my team in a different way. Happily the 3 main tools I use to do this have all improved as we’ve moved up the leagues, and I’m sure they’ll be familiar with anyone who’s reading this:
- Highlights. Let’s face it, there’s just no substitute for watching the action yourself. You miss out on the feel of the game, the ebb and flow, but for knowing what on earth the Review Show is banging on about you just need them.
- FotMob. When I first downloaded it, it was just a list of scores. Now you have in game stats, stats on every PLAYER, a rudimentary commentary (good for an overall impression of how a goal’s been scored) and a flipping momentum graph. Look at that! Blue himalayas! We’re all over them!
- Podcasts. I promise no one’s paid me to say this, but TSBW has been absolutely invaluable, with a special shout out to the match reviews. These are usually insightful and always honest. By which I mean: if County were rubbish, they tell you so and why. You get to know who’s playing well, and whose contributions were essential if not- necessarily highlight worthy.
And, of course, I don’t NEVER watch or go to games. One nice consequence of my situation is I’m at a point where the games I do get to, win or lose, are a treat. Which is nice. Taking my Dad’s scarf to Wembley especially: that was special.
What I hope I can contribute, blog-wise, boils down to 2 things really. There’ll be personal memories (because someone’s done the written equivalent of giving me a microphone) but also the removed view, sort of thing. The musings of someone who spends most of his time a step back. And at such a positive and exciting time to be a County fan, why the bloody hell not? So with that in mind, a quick review of the season so far.
Fair to say it’s not been completely ideal. But then again it wouldn’t be County if we weren’t moaning about the start to the season would it? I mean, that’s about as County as a Uruguayan hat in a reservoir.
On the face of it, that’s mental. Top 10 in the 3rd tier? There was a time we’d have been more than happy to be sitting above 20th a tier further down, but we’re swimming in a different pond* these days, and not winning suddenly feels weird. It’s a measure of how far we’ve come, to be sure. But we have to look at where we are, not where we’ve been.
I watched more games than my usual intake through August due to a freak administrative error. That meant the joy of watching the first half against Bradford, but also the horror of watching the second half against Bradford. Maybe that game summed up our season so far: great when we’re good and terrible when we’re off; we’ve just been off more than we’ve been good.
There’s clearly a good side here, last Saturday’s game against Cardiff was clear proof of that. The main problem appears to be consistency and silly defensive errors, and I reckon both those are linked to player availability and the preferred system Chally wants us to play. Fans are holding the team – rightly – to a high standard, but football is not always your strongest team in brilliant form and I feel there’s been a certain amount of overreaction as well. Given the high turnover of players in the squad from only 2 seasons ago (I had a little check and only Hinchliffe, Pye, Camps and Wooton remain of the team that beat Notts to claim L2, with Ben more regularly dropping to the bench these days and Camps injured of late) we have to allow for a certain amount of gel-time. Players need to get used to one another. Partnerships need time to blossom.
Personally, I wasn’t worried before Cardiff and I’m certainly not now. I am of the opinion that we have an incredible manager for this level, and the correlation between success and a long-term management set-up is strong. There’s no doubt that certain aspects of performance haven’t been up to it and Bate, especially, has felt like a huge miss – someone who will not only break up opposition plays, but take the ball facing his own net and play it forwards. With any luck, the injection of both youth and experience on deadline day, plus a few players returning/getting miles in the legs, PLUS an injection of confidence after the last game will give us a springboard moving forwards.
Sometimes I feel, in these heady days of success, that we as fans can forget that this is a marathon, not a sprint. There was absolutely no way that we’d have everything all our own way forever. These are still the good times, and I’m doubling down: the team will improve!
Bloody said it now.
*I’m not going out my way to mention ‘rezzers’ in these blogs, but I’d already done it in this one and other bodies of water are available.
