Saturday, 21^st February 2026.

Matchday: County v Wigan Athletic, League 1.

I was in my seat very early today and The Old Lady of Hardcastle Road was looking resplendent despite the constant threat of rain.

Watching the goalkeeping department warm up, it looked very much as though they had been told to lay off the thunderbolts pending the arrival of the catch nets before the next home game. I certainly didn’t see anyone struck by a ball this time.

8/11 for my team prediction, DC had gone for Lewis Bate, Jack Diamond and Adama Sidibeh instead of Roman Dixon, Odin Bailey and Tanto Olaofe.

Wigan started like a house on fire, Gary Caldwell has certainly got them worked up. Their first goal, after only two minutes, was the result of a poor pass by Lewis Bate, who is obviously still getting up to speed. Joe Taylor, looking more like his old self after escaping from Huddersfield, carved his way down field and held his nerve to slot home past Ben Hinchliffe. All was not lost though, and three minutes later Brad Hills headed a precision Ollie Norwood free kick home to being us level. The spark of hope was dampened by another Wigan goal six minutes later, when County’s dozing defence allowed Murray to cross into the box where Tayor rose well to score his second. Things were looking pretty bleak at this stage; coming back once isn’t easy with our scoring record, doing it twice was looking unlikely to say the least. I’ve made it my habit to go to the disabled toilet under the Cheadle End on thirty-five minutes and, as some bloke had taken root in there, I missed our second goal but heard the roar as it went in. Jack Diamond was the provider, his cross from the right was swept home by County’s version of the Duracell Bunny, Adama Sidibeh. The equaliser made my half time Bovril taste so much better.

Captain Bate was replaced by Odin Bailey at half time. There’s no disgrace in that; Bailey plays that bit further forward and Bate is still getting back to match fitness. County were gradually getting on top of the tiring Latics and their cause was greatly helped on the hour mark when Wigan’s Sessegnon took the empty-headed decision to pull Josh Stokes back by his shirt. He’d already been booked and his dismissal for a second yellow was a mere formality. Wigan’s subs five minutes later, including the withdrawal of Taylor, their main threat, looked like an attempt to hang on for a point. County’s reply had more to do with resting players for Tuesday, Tanto Olaofe, Malik Mothersille and Owen Dodgson replacing Adama Sidibeh, Josh Stokes and Ben Osborn. It was getting late now, but Mr. Tickle’s timewasting antics at every goal kick and all the substitutions meant that we had nine added minutes in which to get the winner. That winner was created by Jack Diamond, who tore down the right and provided the perfect cross for Kyle Wooton to head into the net. If that looked like the end of the drama there was more to come, as Wigan hadn’t finished imploding yet. Asamoah, who’d only entered the fray twenty-five minutes earlier, launched a two-footed assault on Jack Diamond and was rightly dismissed. This extended the added time even further, and County took the opportunity to score a fourth, Kyle Wootton breezing his second home after good work by Tanto Olaofe and Malik Mothersille.

Gary Caldwell didn’t take the defeat very well. His version of events was that Sessegnon’s dismissal “was never a red” (it wasn’t, it was an entirely justified second yellow), Asamoah’s was “reckless” (which is no defence) and that County’s bench were “jumping around” to influence the officials (he was like a Jack-in-the-box all afternoon). If his team had shown a bit more composure and kept eleven men on the pitch, they might well have got a valuable point.

The stewards were busy at EP this afternoon. There’s definitely two varieties of them at County now; there’s the ones in orange coats with the labels still attached who look like they’ve won a trolley dash round a PPE warehouse, they seem to be there just to make up the numbers. The other type, burly blokes in black paramilitary gear with hi-viz tabards slung over the top, ran up the steps to the top of LT3/4 a couple of times yesterday and at one stage there was much craning of necks to see what was going on at the top of LT5. It’s rumoured that they were after an idiot who had racially abused one of their number and was trying to hide in the crowd. Absolutely indefensible if so, and I hope he was caught.

Today’s tune is in the spirit of Caldwell’s post-match comments, “It Wasn’t Me” by George Thorogood and the Destroyers:

Sunday, 22^nd February 2026.

Matchday, County Ladies v Durham Cestria, FAWNL Division 1 North.

Prior to today’s game, County Ladies’ Twitter feed announced the signing of Ellie Fletcher from league rivals Liverpool Feds. Manager Steve O’Hara described Ellie as “An energetic defender with real quality.”

Yesterday’s win for the men has taken them back up to fourth place in the League 1 table. It’s encouraging that we have a game or two in hand over most of our rivals, but turning them into points is the hard bit.

The win has improved the look of PPG Prophet’s graph:

Here’s how County ladies lined up for today’s game. The new recruit started on the bench.

County started well and in the first twenty minutes had a number of decent chances, Kenedy Owen and Jess Battle in particular working hard to push Cestria back. Unfortunately, despite this pressure, it was Durham who took the lead in the twenty-second minute with an unstoppable long range shot from Emily Hutchinson. The women in blue stuck at it though, and ten minutes before half time they were level through an Em Bradshaw rocket into the top left-hand corner of Amelia Lydiatt’s goal. Both teams had chances before the break but the scores remained level at half time.

Thanks to Andrew Machin of @machinsports for use of his photo.

Durham began the second half the stronger, exerting pressure on County’s backline. A shot from a tight angle went over the bar and Em Lysons was called upon to quell a threat from red shirts behind our back line. Steve O’Hara made his first changes on fifty-five minutes, Levi Rathburn and Livvi Turkington being withdrawn and replaced by Gemma Lancaster and debutant Ellie Fletcher. The new girl almost made her mark straight away with a shot from the left that went just over the bar. County almost went ahead on 67 minutes when Nat Watson was presented with the ball from a poor goal kick but the ‘keeper redeemed herself with a fine save. Two minutes later Cestria took the lead through Eloise Morran who accepted a ball from Lleucu Mathias and found the bottom left-hand corner of Freya Heap’s net. Steve O’Hara responded by bringing Abbie Podmore on for Natalie Watson. County’s ‘keeper was on the alert with fifteen to go when a Durham free kick found its way round the wall but she was able to collect it. We were close to an equaliser with eight minutes to go when Lydiatt was only able to parry an Em Bradshaw shot but just managed to claim the ball before Abbie Podmore was able to strike. Late changes were made to refresh matters, Shaunna Jein and Maria Figueiredo taking to the field in place of Emma Lysons and Olivia Greenhalgh. County continued to press with a series of corners deep into injury time and came close with a Francesca Davies header from a Kenedy Owen free kick. They were unable to make the pressure count, alas, and Durham ran out 2-1 winners.

The defeat means County Ladies remain in fourth place in the table.

Today’s tune is good advice after a defeat from Merry Hell: “Pick Yourself Up And Dance”:

Monday, 23^rd February 2026.

TSBW’s match review of the Wigan game was out this morning with Jimmy Harmer playing the Fiona Bruce role, trying to keep Dan Culverwell, Dave Whitehouse and Steve Bardsley in order. The analysis went like this:

• The team: As variable as ever, but roughly this:
  • Goal: Hinchliffe.
  • Back three: Dacres-Cogley, Hills, Pye.
  • Midfield: Diamond, Norwood, Bate, Osborn.
  • Forward: Sidibeh, Stokes.
  • Striker: Wootton.
• Choices: Would we be better starting Odin Bailey instead of Lewis Bate, at least until the latter is properly up the speed? Adama Sidibeh is looking more effective than Tanto Olaofe at the moment, so it seems sensible to start with him. Playing Josh Stokes wide left looks a waste, perhaps he would move more centrally if Tayo Edun was fit to start.
• Arttu Hoskonen: It sounds as though he may be close to making an appearance.
• Joe Taylor: How has he transformed from absolute flop for Huddersfield to Ballon D’Or contender for Wigan? Did well with his two goals but should really have scored a third.
• First half:
  • 1-0 Wigan: What was Lewis Bate trying to do when he gave the ball away? It was a poor pass, but it’s hard to see what his intention was. Taylor took it well.
  • 1-1: An excellent free kick from Ollie Norwood and a superb header from Brad Hills. Should he and the other central defenders get more goals than they have so far this season?
  • 2-1 Wigan: Our defence didn’t cover themselves in glory.
  • We seemed determined to play the ball out from the back even when it was dangerous to do so; perhaps an over-reaction from the game at Bradford where we relied on the long ball all the time.
  • Sessegnon: He couldn’t have any complaints about his caution for pulling Kyle Wootton down.
  • 2-2: In off Adama Sidibeh’s knee, but who cares. He’s looking a cracking signing; plays with a smile on his face and gives 100%.
• Second half:
  • Odin Bailey: Bringing him on to replace Lewis Bate seemed the obvious thing to do; he gets us forward much more efficiently.
  • Second yellow: Again, Sessegnon had only himself to blame for the sending off; pulling Stokes back when he was already on a caution was asking for trouble.
  • County were already gaining the upper hand by this stage in any case and Wigan seemed to recognise this when they withdrew Taylor.
  • Time added: The nine minutes could have been even longer, given the amount of shilly-shallying on display at every Wigan goal kick and the number of substitutions.
  • 3-2 County: Jack Diamond’s cross from the right and Kyle Wootton’s unstoppable header demonstrated the need to get more crosses from the byline.
  • Asamoah: How Wigan’s manager can dispute the red card for such a reckless assault is a mystery.
  • 4-2 County: Substitutes Olaofe and Mothersille were both involved in the move that ended in Wootton’s seventeenth goal of the season.
• Man of the match: Awarded to Sidibeh before Wootton scored his two goals.

Watch the whole thing here:

Dave Marchbank, the Supporters’ Co-op Chair and I went to Edgeley Park today and spent an hour talking to Tracey Neville about her plans for the transition from County Ladies to County Women. We explored the possibilities for working together to promote the team and build both the fanbase and the Co-op membership. The discussion will be worked up into an article for the Co-op’s new website.

Here’s my suggested team for tomorrow, it’s unchanged from Saturday’s starting XI. I suppose there’s a chance Tayo Edun might be back from his suspected concussion break.

As we’re heading to the brewing centre of Britain tomorrow, today’s tune is a paean of praise to Charlie Mops, the man who invented beer:

Tuesday, 24^th February 2026.

Matchday: Burton Albion v County, League 1.

Here’s how the team looked tonight.

I wasn’t able to travel, but I was able to watch the game. I made copious notes but in the end I decided not to write too much about it; catharsis is one thing but it was such an epic shambles that I don’t want to go through it again. It’s not so much the defeat that hurts as the manner of it; we know that the manager and the players are capable of so much more but it’s been a long time since we’ve seen it and this was the nadir.

We’ve now slipped down to fifth and if we don’t start shaping up soon we’ll be out of contention for the playoffs, never mind automatic promotion.

A defeat always leads to a flat spot on PPG Prophet’s graph:

Today’s tune sums up my reaction to the performance. “Hell’s Bells” by AC/DC:

Wednesday, 25^th February 2026.

Two returns and a debut for this week’s TSBW’s main show. Russ was back from Iceland, Andy from some time off, and Rebecca Fitzpatrick made her first appearance.

• A strong set of newbie’s answers from Rebecca:
  • First game: 30^th October 1993, County 4 v Swansea 0.
  • Favourite game: 7^th December 1999, Manchester City 1, County 2.
  • Favourite goal: Tony Dinning v Manchester City, 7^th December 1999.
  • Favourite player (past): Tony Dinning (there’s a definite theme developing here).
  • Favourite player (present): Tony Dinning Brad “King Of Cardiff” Hills.
• The Phil Robbo connection: Rebecca chose Phil to be her Godfather when she was Christened late in life. He took her under his wing and accompanied her to matches and even arranged for her to be a mascot at EP when her parents stopped going. A characteristically generous act from the most generous of men.
• Burton (A): The disappointing performance raises several questions:
  • Is Dave Challinor safe? The panel all gave him a vote of confidence but some of his decisions recently have been dodgy; starting with Bate and Onyango at Bradford, making subs too late at Burton, &c. &c. He admitted he was wrong at Bradford but repeated the errors at Burton.
  • Has the team regressed this season? The signings have looked promising but the performances haven’t improved. We have good spells rather than good matches and scrape past teams rather than putting them away.
  • Have the fans become entitled? Booing your own players is never acceptable but we’re bound to wonder what’s going on when we compare the investment in players and the club’s talk of Championship football to what we see on the pitch.
  • What happened to “Intensity is our identity?”
  • Ben Hinchliffe: He had a shocker on Tuesday but he wasn’t alone. Corey Addai doesn’t fill the panel with confidence, and the two younger ‘keepers are relatively unknown quantities, so Ben probably keeps his place if only by default.
• Random Shit Of The Week: An Andy Reding production. The other two panellists had to guess the football team based on a series of clues. I scored a total of 19.

Another excellent pod with a very good debut guest. Get it here:

Today’s tune captures the mood of the County nation this week; “Raining Raining” by Nick Lowe:

Thursday, 26^th February 2026.

Steve Bardsley spoke to the ever-enthusiastic Matt Farley of The Stevenage FC Podcast to get the SP on Saturday’s game:

• The manager: Alex Revell is in his second spell in sole charge but has been around the club in many different capacities for donkey’s years.
• Ambitions for the season: Continue to establish themselves as a top-half League 1 club.
• Form: After winning at EP, they went eight games without a win. More recently they’ve won three at home and lost three away.
• Transfer window: A relatively quiet affair.
  • Incoming:
    • Jack Taylor, a tall centre back from Sutton United.
    • Harry Cornick on loan from Bristol City (now out injured).
    • Joe Knight, a midfielder from Brighton.
    • Matt Phillips, ex- West Brom, QPR, Blackpool and Oxford United.
  • Outgoing:
    • Mathaeus Roberts to Eastbourne on loan
    • Jovan Malcolm to Barrow on loan
    • Jake Young to St. Mirren
• Players to watch:
  • Phoenix Patterson, ex-Wycombe, Tottenham and Watford striker.
  • Dan Kemp, ex-Swindon, MK Dons and orient midfielder.
  • Dan Phillips, Trinidad and Tobago international midfielder.
  • Matt Phillips, experienced multi-role player.

Loads of useful insight as ever from Steve and his guest, watch it all here:

Geordie Hatter’s Thursday show was another treat for the senses tonight with some excellent tunage on the theme of drink. The show is best served live, as that gives the listener the chance to contribute via the live chat, but there’s a recording available if you’d like to dip your toe in the water:

https://the-geordie-hatter.mixlr.com/recordings/3049244

I have great fun suggesting songs for GH’s Thursday show but I didn’t think of this one in time. Today’s tune is a Dr. Feelgood number, “Gimme One More Shot”:

Friday 27^th February 2026.

Highlights of Tuesday’s implosion are up now if you have the intestinal fortitude to watch them:

The club have issued an update this week, in the form of an interview with Simon Wilson by Jon Keighren. Here’s a brief summary of the discussion:

• The transfer window: It was always going to be reactive, coming as it does in mid-season. Returns for Tanto Olaofe and Louie Barry were a source of positivity and if one is injured and the other is bound to take time to get up to speed, both have had positive effects off the field already. Adama Sidibeh had been under watch for a while and it was felt that we needed more pace within the team. He has also brought additional enthusiasm into the dressing room. There was interest in some players from other clubs, and while a time will come for some to move on, the money and the possibility of replacements have to be right for departures to happen.
• What constitutes success this season? Promotion is the obvious target but it isn’t the be all and end all; consolidation as a top-end League 1 with a year of the seven-year plan to go would be a decent outcome.
• Stockport Sports Village: The club have had a presence there ever since the takeover; the Academy, the Education programme, Stockport Town and County Ladies have all been based there for some time. County required a long-term plan and the council couldn’t afford to invest the sort of funds required to improve the facility, so it made sense for the club to take it over in full but with a pledge to maintain it as a community asset.
• Grove Lane: The land in Cheadle Hulme was originally acquired for use as a training facility but developments at SSV have rendered that plan obsolete. It is now proposed to build 126 affordable homes there instead, and for any profits to be reinvested into the community.
• The women’s team: Moving from County Ladies to County Women is more than a mere name change. The club want to join the movement toward excellence in women’s sport and the appointment of Tracey Neville with her track record is a mark of the club’s commitment. The achievements of those who have run the show so far will not be forgotten; there are now 350 girls and women playing football under the club’s name and the first team are established winners at their current level. The team will continue to play at SSV and the facilities there will see improvement now that the club have control, but games will also take place at Edgeley Park.
• Carrington: There is still a desire to bring the first team’s training facility into the Borough but the massive investment required makes it a more long-term plan.
• The Academy: Progress has been rapid, exemplified by Che Gardner becoming the first Academy graduate to start a game in League 1. The takeover of SSV will allow the Academy to move from Level 3 to Level 2 in due course, bringing more opportunities for growth and success.
• Debreceni VSC: Stott Capital’s investment in Hungarian football is entirely separate from County, although the two clubs have board members in common and there’s always the opportunity to exchange ideas and to learn from each other.
• The Five-Year Plan: The original seven-year plan, of which one year remains, was mainly financial as a means of lifting the club from non-league to the Championship. The new plan looks to go even further:
  • Raise the men’s and women’s team into the top twenty or thirty teams in the country.
  • Bring more home-grown players and coaches into both the men’s and women’s teams.
  • Continue the club’s work in the community, including with schools, providing PE kits to those who struggle to afford them and the rest of the work of the Community Trust.
  • Improve fan engagement, grow the fanbase and make the matchday experience better.

Real food for thought from the club, watch it in full here:

Russ Johnson, TSBW supremo, has used AI to create this infographic based on the club update:

Here’s my guess at a team for tomorrow. I’m hoping we have both wingbacks fit and that Odin Bailey will start to give a bit more impetus from midfield.

Today’s tune is one I’ve used on the eve of a long trip south before but it’s an absolute banger so it gets another outing. It’s “Great Southern” by Kevin Gordon:

I can’t go to St. Evenage tomorrow, so good luck and fair winds to all who are going, especially those on the Fingerpost Flyer.

Animo et fide.