Saturday, 9^th August 2025.

Matchday, Wycombe Wanderers v County, League 1.

Up bright and early, well up anyway, for the first outing on the Fingerpost Flyer for the season. Janice dropped me off nice and early so I was near the head of the queue and was hopeful of a seat near the front. My cunning plan was scuppered, however, when the driver of the coach, unfamiliar with the arrangements, chose to park some distance from his passengers. By the time I got on board I was across from the toilet and nearer the back than I’d prefer.

Still, with the emphasis on keeping alcohol and loud music off the coach, it was a relatively peaceful journey down to Wycombe where the sun was cracking the flags:

Straight into the ground on arrival to find that my seat was on the second row, directly behind Adrian Caville and Carl Wieczorek. As I was about to sit down, the ground announcer was boasting about the many ground improvements made during the off season. It’s a pity this didn’t include cleaning the seats, which were covered in a mixture of white dust and pigeon droppings as illustrated by this picture from Ian Brown’s excellent blog:

Carl, acting as a one-man Help The Chairboys, was busily cleaning seats for those around him and doing a cracking job. Talking of Carl, one of the letters on his new green shirt has started to lift off, so those of you who’ve paid to have players’ names on shirts might need to watch out for that.

In last week’s epistle I mentioned the various ways in which clubs complicate the allocation of seats. Wycombe elected to go for an old favourite, where some stewards say “Sit anywhere you like” but other stewards insist on people sitting in their allocated seats.

County lined up like this, wearing the new green third shirt:

I thought we looked a little light up front, even though it wasn’t much different to my expected team and got me 10/11 on FanHub. I’d gone for Malik Mothersille, who was relegated to the bench by a slight knock, replaced by our new centre half, Joseph Olowu, making his league debut. The new shirt has obviously gone down very well with the fans; the stands were full of them.

County set off like a house on fire, Wycombe looked like a team with a massive number of changes from last season who are struggling to gel. The move for our opening goal after nine minutes was started by Ethan Pye with a pinpoint pass to Jack Diamond on the left, who crossed for Kyle Wootton to fire home. This dominance continued through the half, the only fly in the ointment being County’s inability to get a second.

It was good to hear County stalwart Arthur Brownlow get his customary birthday announcement over the PA at half time. I didn’t catch how old he was this week but he must be well into his second century by now.

We went further ahead after fifty-one minutes with an absolute belter from Jack Diamond who worked his way into the box and, finding himself in a massive amount of space, curled a shot into the top right-hand corner. This prompted a flurry of four substitutions from Wanderers, which smacked of desperation but actually made them look much more dangerous. Within a couple of minutes of the subs, Wycombe were awarded a penalty after Corey O’Keeffe bundled Dan Harvie over. Fortunately, Alex Lowry hit the left-hand post with the spot kick, the ball shot across the line and went out for a goal kick. Chally then took off Callum Camps and Joseph Olowu, bringing on Nathan Lowe and Odin Bailey in their places.

The rest of the game saw a rearguard action from County and it was looking very dodgy, especially after Luke Leahy scored to make it 2-1. Time added seemed to go on for an eternity and were it not for a superbly athletic save from Corey Addai, we would have been regretting two points dropped.

It took an age to get away from the ground, but once away we made decent progress along the motorway. We stopped to stretch our legs at Norton Canes Services on the M6 Toll and witnessed a very unsavoury incident involving passengers from two other coaches. I’ll say no more here but I suspect we haven’t heard the last of it.

We were back at The Fingerpost by nine fifteen, Janice ferried me home to the Salt & Pepper Mixed from the Panda takeaway that she’d kindly laid in against my return.

Today’s tune is from Judas Priest and covers both aspects of County’s performance, “Diamonds And Rust”

https://www.youtube.com/embed/Hm25FhH9vqs?feature=oembed

Sunday, 10^th August 2025.

The Supporters’ Co-Op have a shirt auction on at the moment, it’s a very desirable item and we hope it will bring a considerable boost to the coffers.

The link to bid is here:

https://twitter.com/SCFCSuppCoop/status/1953800980933333326abc

County Ladies have announced a new recruit in the shape of First Team Coach, Chris Brown. He’s been out of football for a while having previously been part of the First Team staff at Stoke City Women.

The Ladies themselves completed their pre-season programme yesterday with a 2-2 draw against Liverpool Feds FC Women.

Chris Eaton, the source ne plus ultra for County stats, has revealed that yesterday’s win at Wycombe was Dave Challinor’s 100th League victory in charge of County. This is the full story in numbers:

Games played: 171

Games won: 100 (58.5%)

Games drawn: 38

Games lost: 33

Goals scored: 308

Goals conceded: 149

Points won: 338

Points per game: 1.977

League Titles: 2

Playoff Campaigns: 2

Magnificent numbers, without a doubt. Some have suggested that the figures alone put DC head and shoulders above all other County managers, but Jim Gannon and Danny Bergara both achieved things that can’t be explained by numbers alone. Irresolvable perhaps, but a good topic for post-match discussions in the pub.

Today’s tune, for statisticians everywhere, is “Think Of A Number” by Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/a8tlqUol-Lg?feature=oembed

Monday, 11^th August 2025.

TSBW’s Match Review pod came out today. Dan Culverwell took the chair, ably assisted by Lauren, Steve and Big Rolo. The big news was that there’s no decision yet on a replacement for Cardboard Tanto, but the appeal for St. Anne’s Hospice is still open via the links below. Getting back to the match, the discussion went like this:

• Adams Park: Not a bad place to visit once you’ve got there but the food is at west end prices. The stewards are generally friendly, if somewhat conflicted about the house rules, see above.
• The team: Malik Mothersille was carrying a knock and was relegated to the subs’ bench.
• Joseph Olowu: Our new number 5 made a decent debut; although called a centre half he often took up an advanced position on the right. He looked a little rusty at times, not surprising as he didn’t have much of a pre-season. He was replaced by Odin Bailey on 66 minutes.
• After an initial flurry of attacks by the hosts, County dominated early which kept the home fans quiet. Our press was excellent, limiting Wycombe to passing the ball to each other in their own half.
• Ethan Pye: His pass to Jack Diamond, which led to our first goal, may have added another £million to his value on the transfer market.
• Second half: Wanderers emerged reinvigorated from their team talk but County maintained their dominance. Jack Diamond’s goal was comical in one respect; he seemed to be waiting for a defender to attempt to stop him and when nobody did, he just curled the ball into the top right-hand corner.
• Wycombe’s subs: They made four subs shortly after our second goal and it seemed to swing the tenor of the game. They won a penalty soon after but fortunately for County they hit the post and the ball went out for a goal kick. Our penalty area was as much like the Alamo as anything for the remainder of the match. Bringing Lowe and Bailey on for Camps and Olowu didn’t really help much and the home team scored soon afterwards.
• Man of the match: Difficult to see past Jack Diamond for an assist and an early goal of the season contender.

See the pod for yourself here:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/nBKpuPWCICk?feature=oembed

If you’d like to contribute to Lee Rowley’s fundraiser for St. Anne’s Hospice, you can use the QR code below or text TANTOTWO, TANTOFIVE, TANTOTEN OR TANTOTWENTY To 70085.

It’s difficult to know what sort of team Chally will pick for tomorrow’s match, but I thought it would be fun to have a stab at it anyway:

Today’s tune is nothing to do with all that, it’s just my current favourite medley of electric Morris tunes by Ashley Hutchings and Friends, “Saturday Night / Bobbing Joe / Beaux Badby”:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/xpbiSdOz7zA?feature=oembed

Tuesday, 12^th August 2025.

Matchday: County v Crewe Alexandra, League (Carabao) Cup first round.

Is anyone else having their life blighted by car loan wankers? I’m getting at least one call a day from chancers who tell me that I’m entitled to a massive refund on car finance I took out. I can’t be civil to them anymore, I just tell them to clear off and I then block the number. Ironically, the vehicle they keep quoting is a shite old Jag I bought for £700 a few years ago, I paid cash in any case and besides, I don’t think anyone in their right mind would lend me money to buy it. It was fun while it lasted:

The club announced during the day that Ben Hinchliffe would be in nets tonight, which would make it his 400^th game for County. An absolutely superb achievement and one that’s unlikely to repeated.

I’ve been reluctant to refer to Ben as the GOAT in the past because Alan Ogley was one of my early County heroes and these things stay with you for life. Now that Ben has reached this tremendous milestone, I’m happy to say that the man in the middle of our goal is the Greatest Of All Time. Arise Sir Ben.

Here’s the full lineup:

My lack of confidence in my FanHub prediction was justified by a 5/11 score on the night. A pretty strong starting eleven with a few promising young lads on the bench. Crewe’s players are a closed book to me but judging by the high numbers on display, they’d made plenty of changes. Ian Dowden, who I met on the concourse, told me that a Crewe fan had said that the team was more like a Bus Replacement Service than The Railwaymen.

Once underway, Crewe ran about briskly but didn’t provide too much of a threat. County were on top but Crewe’s keeper was the main factor in the clean sheet at half time.

County made the breakthrough just after half time, with goals for Kyle Wootton and Nathan Lowe, both assisted from the wing by Owen Dodgson. He looks a real find, no wonder there was competition for his signature. I’m not an expert lip reader, but watching the highlights I’m pretty sure Nathan Lowe says “Thank fuck for that!” as he celebrates his goal.

The two goals early in the half gave DC the confidence for mass changes, Messrs. Diamond, Gardner C, Okeke and Fevrier replacing Wootton, Dodgson, O’Keeffe and Norwood. In my ignorance, I thought he might have overdone the changes but we were still on top afterwards and the effect of Che Gardner’s speed on defenders is always a good watch.

Crewe made five changes in short order and to be fair to them they kept our defence busy for the last twenty minutes or so. County replied by bringing another young speedster on, Arian Allen replacing Nathan Lowe. Allen’s appearance was received with tremendous enthusiasm by the singers in Upper Tier 3. The way they were going on, you’d think it was the second coming of Kevin Francis or Louie Barry, but perhaps it’s explained by his Rangers connections.

Our third goal was a belter, Lewis Fiorini lashing home from twenty yards after being teed up by Che Gardner. I expect Fiorini still has to a lot to do before he gets a start in a league game but the ninety minutes tonight and the goal he scored will hopefully increase his confidence. Despite Crewe’s late pressure, it ended 3-1 so we were through to the second round.

Another goal for Kyle Wootton then, that’s one in each game so far. It seems to me that Woots is playing more as a goal scoring centre forward than a target man this season because we have two wingbacks who can cross the ball better than the lads they’ve replaced. Looking at social media, he even seems to be winning some of his detractors round. I don’t envy DC trying to accommodate Woots (vital to the team), Lowe (Stoke will want him to play) and Beno (viewed by many as a massive prospect) this season.

Today’s tune is by The Pogues and makes mention of tonight’s opponents’ home town; this is “Boat Train”:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/uhjqyPqcvEs?feature=oembed

Wednesday, 13^th August 2025.

Frustrated by not being able to choose my seat for the two away games so far, I’ve emailed the club as follows:

“The new ticketing system is an improvement in many ways but one thing the old system did better was allowing particular seats to be chosen for away games. This is very important to those of us who can’t stand all game and want to avoid areas where people choose to stand all the time even though they’ve been provided with a perfectly serviceable seat.

Would it be possible for the new system to allow this, please? It does it very well for home games, so there should be a facility somewhere.”

The big news on Planet County today is the strong suggestion, from usually reliable sources, that County are about to sign Brad Hills from Norwich for an initial fee of over £1M with add-ons that could eventually reach over double that. I thought a loan might be a possibility but if the sale goes through it will be a real coup. DC’s success won’t have gone unnoticed by other clubs higher up the pyramid; promotion is our best chance of keeping him at County, so improving the quality of the squad by spending wisely has got be good news.

Ten years ago today, I was thrutching about on the MOD tug “SD Forceful” at Falmouth. Not a bad job, the highpoint of any day at Falmouth Drydock is the arrival of the pastie van, not something you get at other shipyards.

The League (Carabao) Cup second round draw was made on Sky Sports tonight and we got Wigan away. Not one to set the pulse racing, especially as it means we’ll be playing at their place twice in a week. We’ve got them at EP in the Virtu Trophy in November as well, so that’s us playing them at least four times this season. Be still, my beating heart.

The Scarf Bergara Wore’s weekly pod was live tonight, fronted by Russ Johnson, aided and abetted by Andy Reding and TSBW blogger Nick Reid making his pod debut. It went like this:

• Reidy’s Fan Guest questions: A strong set; First game was Peterborough at home 95/96, Favourite Game was Hardicker’s finest hour v Citeh, Favourite Goal was GLEESON! v Wycombe in the playoff semi, Favourite Past Player was Luke Beckett and Favourite Present Player is Ethan Pye.
• Brad Hills: The deal is alive with the sound of gasps all round. £1M is an awful lot of money but he fits the profile of young player with potential both on the pitch and in the transfer market. We’re quite well served at the back but I wonder if the club know that Ethan Pye is on his way so they’ve spent some of the money we’re getting for him on Hills.
• Ben Hinchliffe: Is he really the GOAT or the BOAT? I’d have him down as a contender for best club servant in living memory, a rival even for Jim Gannon in that respect. That doesn’t make for a very good acronym, though.
• Crewe (H): There was a strong core of first team talent in our team, Crewe made more changes. After a competitive first half, our two goals early in the second knocked the stuffing out of our opponents for a while. Everyone wants Lewis Fiorini to succeed with us but he seems to lack confidence and it’s hard to know how he gets a game in our midfield short of a major injury crisis. His terrific goal may have masked an otherwise poor performance. The academy lads, Gardner, Okeke and Allen all impressed.
• Wycombe (A): Jack Diamond scored a worldy, he’s coming to the fore now he’s getting a run in the team. The last twenty minutes were nerve racking, their penalty miss was a major factor in us gaining the three points.
• EP development: With the planning meeting coming up tomorrow, a new blog from TSBW by Josh explains the intricacies of the planning system and the ways in which we might yet be denied the go-ahead. Get it here: https://thescarfbergarawore.wordpress.com/2025/08/13/understanding-edgeley-parks-planning-delays/
• Random Shit Of The Week: Reidy’s sung jingle was worth the admission money on its own*. Hatters’ Hot Picks was a rebranded Family Fortunes and despite Andy saying “It’s not hard, is it?” at one stage, it proved quite difficult.

*It doesn’t cost anything.

Watch the whole thing here:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/oS3PhqD40oo?feature=oembed

As we’re off to the east end of that London this Saturday, today’s tune commemorates The Battle Of Cable Street which took place a few miles from Orient’s ground in 1936. This is The Men They Couldn’t Hang with “Ghosts of Cable Street”:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/IesWkcW4j8o?feature=oembed

Thursday, 14^th August 2025.

What a time to be a blue and white army foot soldier. Two major statements of intent for Stockport County in one day.

There have been strong rumours for some time that Brad Hills (remember him? Fantastic prospect, young, built like a Victorian outhouse, distressingly handsome) was coming back to County despite being given a squad number at Norwich City. Those rumours were coming from very credible quarters so I was prepared to believe that a loan deal was on the cards but I didn’t imagine we’d actually sign him on a permanent deal. The fee hasn’t been announced, they seldom are, but it’s said to be seven figures with various add-ons and a cut of any future sale. Combine that with a five year deal and County really have pushed the boat out. I’m bracing myself for an announcement that the money has come from the sale of Ethan Pye, but let’s hope I’m wrong. Even if I’m right, it would be exactly what County have set out to do; nurture young players, make money when they move on and start the cycle again.

The announcement about Hills came as Janice and I were on our way to the Town Hall for the Planning & Highways Regulation Committee. That might not sound like a big night out but we hoped to see County’s plans for the improvements to Edgeley Park finally approved. While we were waiting to be shown to Committee Room 2, we met with Dave Marchbank, Chair of the Supporters’ Co-Op board, and the Manchester Evening News’ Local Democracy Reporter, Declan Carey. Janice took this picture of Dave and I in the waiting room; it’s hard to see how the council could turn us down, really…

If you’d like to see and hear how the hearing went, the webcast is available here:

https://stockport.public-i.tv/core/portal/webcast_interactive/1007364

If you want the bare bones, these are the highlights:

• Cllr Steve Gribbon, chairing the meeting, explained that the application had already been through the Area Committee twice, so many questions had already been asked and every Councillor had a pack containing all the relevant information in front of them.
• Daniel Hewitt, the Council’s Town Centre Planning Manager, then read through the main points of the report, including the club’s plans, the reason for the delays, the results of the site visit by the council and the background to the objections by the Edgeley Wildlife Reserve Group and others. He explained that the regrettable loss of 0.3 hectares of green space had to be balanced against the many socio-economic benefits of the plans. The club have undertaken to fund improvements in the local area which will be made necessary by the increased traffic and footfall concomitant with the ground expansion. It appears that further objections from individuals and the EWR had come in during the last week or so but have been either outside the scope of the planning system or already covered.
• Before allowing members of the committee to ask questions, Councillor Gribbon explained that he had sat at the back of the gallery at the earlier hearings and praised the civilised and respectful way that those who spoke both for and against the application had put their points across. It sounds as though this isn’t always the case…
•  Cllr Anna Charles-Jones asked if the late objections from various parties had been taken into account and if anything had changed as a result. Mr. Hewitt replied that some important points had been raised and the report had been updated but it was clear that the benefits of the plan still outweighed the harm. The EWR Group had also raised the question of nature walks in the disputed area and it was confirmed that there was no official public access to the site, although there were obvious signs of people breaking in.
• Cllr Pete West queried the claimed economic benefit of expanding the stadium and wondered if it would just be moving local money from other businesses in the area. Mr. Hewitt explained that the construction work itself would bring both social and economic benefits.
• Cllr Dean Fitzpatrick queried the high number of expressions of support against those against and asked it they were all from the local area. Mr. Hewitt explained that it was “a mixed bag,” but that the majority were from the Stockport area, and not from leafy Surrey. There was also confirmation that passing the club’s application would not be a gateway to further development without further planning applications.
• Cllr Gribbon then opened the floor for Councillors to comment on the proposal.
• Cllr Mike Newman said the Edgeley is currently a very beautiful place and when the new stadium is built, it will be an even more beautiful place.
• Cllr Asa Caton said that a balance had to be struck between environmental protection and the social and economic benefit to Edgeley. The EWR Group were very eloquent and passionate but the balance was in favour of the benefits to Edgeley and the wider borough. The enlarged stadium will accommodate more away fans who will spend money in the area and there will be jobs created in the build phase and afterwards at the club. He finished by moving that the application be approved.
• Cllr Dean Fitzpatrick praised the work that everyone including the club, councillors and public had put into the application and made it clear that he would support its approval.
• Cllr Steve Gribbon spoke very warmly about the ways in which Stockport and its football club are both on the up, with improvements to infrastructure, hotels, transport links &c., making this an exciting time for both town and club.
• Emma Curle, Assistant Director, Place Making and Planning, then ran through the many promised socio-economic benefits of the expansion in answer to the earlier question by Cllr West.
• Cllr Dean Fitzpatrick then offered to second granting the application if necessary.
• Cllr Steve Gribbon, as Chair, then asked if there was any dissent towards granting the requested planning permission. There wasn’t any, so the application was officially granted. Those of us who had gone along just for that agenda item were then told we were free to depart if we wished, so we happily took our leave.

Janice and I wrapped up a momentous day for Stockport and Stockport County with a curry at Zulaika in Great Moor. Obviously we don’t know for sure that Brad Hills is going to be the final piece of the jigsaw that gets us to the Championship and we don’t know when, if ever, Edgeley Park will become an 18,000 capacity Maracanã-on-Mersey but today felt pretty special.

Today’s tune is, what else, “Perfect Day” by Lou Reed:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/9wxI4KK9ZYo?feature=oembed

Friday 15^th August 2025.

Yesterday was quite mad, so I suppose it’s not surprising that today has been rather quieter.

At the time of writing, we still await TSBW’s Match Preview for Orient (A) but Lauren Hedley assures us it will be along later.

I’ve had a go at guessing a team for tomorrow, I think a regular eleven is starting to form but perhaps only because we’ve got a few injuries.

Today’s tune is for all the County road warriors heading for Orient tomorrow, it’s Dr. Feelgood’s version of “On The Road Again”:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/8FskvmNuQ7M?feature=oembed

See you all at Orient!

Animo et fide.