Saturday, 2^nd May 2026.

Matchday: Barnsley v Stockport County, League 1.

I’d been putting it off over the last couple of days, but I had to face various facts in the end and I decided I needed to stay at home for this one. That the game was on MurdochVision made the decision slightly easier, although I get even more wound up watching County on TV than I do actually in the ground.

My proposed team netted me my default 9/11; I was expecting Mothersille and Andrésson to start, Chally went for Osborn and Barry. Leaving a fit Barry out would be mad but he doesn’t look at all fit to me and I hope we aren’t making whatever issue he’s got worse.

I’m in awe of the blow-by-blow account that Ian ’Hedgegrower’ Brown publishes of every match so, as I was sat at home, I thought I’d have a crack at doing something similar myself. This is how it went:

0’: Referee Stockbridge kept the players waiting an eternity to get the game going; he was obviously under instructions to ensure the game started dead on three o’clock.

12’: Barnsley did their best to gift us a goal but we failed to take the opportunity.

13’: Northampton winning 1-0 against Plymouth.

16’: Luton take the lead against Bolton with a penalty. Not ideal.

As I feared, Louie Barry not moving freely at all.

18’: Northampton 2-0 against Plymouth.

20-23’: Tremendous pressure from County, corner after corner.

23’: 1-0 to County! Yet another Norwood corner, Barnsley’s ’keeper tries to catch it but only succeeds in helping it on its way to the hovering Adama Sidibeh at the far post who knocks it in from close range. We’re now in third place. Bolton equalise against Luton.

28’: Bradford winning 1-0 at Exeter, Plymouth get one back at Northampton.

33’: Good save from Barnsley’s ’keeper from Odin Bailey, who was set up by Ben Osborn. Reyes Cleary on Barnsley’s left wing looks a proper menace.

40’: Barnsley have the ball in the net but it’s deemed to be offside.

41’: Plymouth get back to 2-2 from 2-0 down.

47’: Half time finds us in fourth place on goal difference, Bolton having gone ahead against Luton.

45‘: Adamah Sidibeh takes one right in the fizzog straight from the kick-off and requires treatment to stop the pitch spinning.

48’: Corey Addai parries a close-range header.

52’: Equaliser for Barnsley. Addai saves well from a free kick but the ball comes back across and Phillips heads it home.

62’: Northampton down to ten men against Plymouth.

64’: Luton now 2-2 at Bolton.

71’: 2-1 to County! Josh Stokes is fouled in the area and the Ref gives a penalty. I thought it look rather soft, to be honest, but DILLIGAF? Ollie Norwood sends the ball bottom left past the ’keeper who went the right way.

72’: Tanto Olaofe and Beno Andrésson replace Louie Barry and Adama Sidibeh.

75’: Plymouth winning 3-2 at Northampton.

79’: Sarce puts Bradford 2-0 up at Exeter.

81’: More subs: Roman Dixon and Lewis Fiorini replace Joshes Stokes and Dacres Cogley. Within a couple of minutes the two subs link up down the right and Dixon comes close to a third for County.

85’: Dixon in action again, he feeds Andrésson, whose shot is saved by the ’keeper.

86’: Fiorini passes to Osborn who shoots but Flavell saves again.

89’: Good save by Addai. Lewis Fiorini, who’s been decent since coming on, commits a daft foul and takes a yellow.

90’: 11 minutes of time added! That seems like a lot.

91’: Promising break by County but Odin Bailey fluffs his lines.

92’: Stevenage go 1-0 up against Wigan.

93’:  Andrésson brought down in the box; the ref waves it away but it looked like a pen to me. More than the one we actually got, in my opinion.

Exeter get a goal back against Bradford, making it 1-2.

95’: Luton go 3-2 ahead against Bolton.

Ollie Norwood is cautioned for kicking the ball away.

Bradford win 2-1 at Exeter, the latter are therefore relegated.

97’: Luton miss a penalty against Bolton.

99’: Bailey passes to Andrésson, who sprints from his own half and keeps his cool to put County 3-1 ahead. Ethan Pye gets a yellow card for being too pleased about the goal.

100’: Odin Bailey replaced by Che Gardner.

102’: Final score, County 3 – Barnsley 1. That’s us in the playoffs.

As the players salute the fans, Ben Hinchliffe shoves Beno Andrésson forwards and the inevitable Thunderclap begins.

Here’s the final league table with all the games played. How we’ve ended up third, having failed to put two decent halves together all season, is a mystery to me.

Exeter, Port Vale, Rotherham and Northampton drop down to League 2. I’m not bothered about the others but I have some sympathy for Exeter, a fan-owned club and always very hospitable at their ground. They’ll be replaced by Bromley, MK Dons and Cambridge plus one from the playoffs. The four hoping to come up that way are Salford, Notts County, Chesterfield and Grimsby. If we don’t go up, I’d prefer us to be playing Notts or Chesterfield; I’ve no desire to go to Grimsby or Salford for a league game again.

The big surprise is seeing Orient, who knocked us out of the playoffs last season, just above the plughole. Their manager, Richie Wellens, launched a blistering attack on his players after the match, accusing them of wasting a season of his, the supporters and their own lives by having no desire in training or in matches. Last year’s success seems to have been based on quality loan players and either the current crop aren’t of the same quality or the club have decided to use their own players instead.

Today’s tune, to mark the return of The Iceman to the team is “Thunderstruck” by AC/DC:

Sunday, 3^rd May 2026.

This photo from County’s Twitter feed had me wondering what this season’s equivalent of “Weekend In Paradise” is.

TSBW’s live Match Reaction pod was in its now established spot of eight o’clock tonight. This week’s panel consisted of Jimmy Harmer, Dan Culverwell, Steve Bardsley and Lee Rowley. Their review of the game against Barnsley went like this:

• It was reassuring to note that there were varying levels of confidence within the panel before the game.
• The team: More or less what we’ve come to expect since Kyle Wootton started playing at the back.
  • Addai
  • Dacres-Cogley, Wootton, Pye, Edun
  • Bailey, Norwood, Osborn
  • Sidibeh, Stokes, Barry.
• Notable absences: No Lewis Bate or Jack Diamond in the squad. There are rumours of a frank exchange of views in the dressing room after last Tuesday’s performance; could there be a link?
• First half: A performance every bit as good as Tuesday’s was poor. Our corners in particular were threatening, we had ten and all were quality. Our goal came from one and was a typical Sidibeh effort, arriving at the far post just in time to meet the ball.
• Second half: Barnsley were a different prospect and it took us a while to regain our dominance. Corey Addai was convinced the ball went out of play before O’Keeffe crossed it for their goal but failed to convince the linesman. Our penalty looked soft but DC was adamant that Stokes had a bruise on the top of his foot from the impact. The penalty we were refused, for a foul on Andrésson, was said to be a dive when viewed in slow motion.
• Individual performances:
  • Josh Dacres-Cogley: Made a massive difference on his return from injury. Kept a lid on Barnsley’s major threat, Reyes Cleary, displayed a level of leadership we’ve missed recently and interacted well with the fans.
  • Lewis Fiorini: His recent cameos have been excellent, far removed from the player whose appearance was the cue for groans from the fans.
  • Roman Dixon: Looked good for his few minutes on the pitch, linked up well with Fiorini.
  • Beno Andrésson: Took his goal superbly, showed what DC meant when he called him the “best instinctive finisher we’ve got.” His recovery appears to be ahead of schedule and he could be a real threat in the playoffs.
  • Ollie Norwood: Put the penalty away in his usual flawless fashion. Tried to follow Barry’s example from last season to jump on top of an advertising board to celebrate but picked the wrong one, which collapsed under him. Could have been nasty.
  • Louie Barry: Although he didn’t look match fit, it still took two defenders to keep him quiet. The rest for a week before the next game will do him the world of good.
  • Kyle Wootton: Continues to put a shift in at the back and it could be argued that his absence up front has forced us into a different and more varied style of play.
  • Tanto Olaofe: Took a while to get going but once he did, he looked more like the old Tanto.
• Stewards: Over-aggressive, couldn’t wait to get stuck in to anyone they thought had misbehaved.
• Stevenage: Will our modified playing style help us to compete with our opponents in the playoffs? Their centre backs lap up our usual high balls to Woots, so perhaps running at them and turning them will be the way forward. Dan thought we might be able to out-shithouse them but the consensus was that we aren’t sufficiently adept at the dark arts for that approach.

The reaction pod is a great way of comparing how other fans see the game with your own views, get it here:

Today’s tune is “The Barnsley Youth And Temperance Society” by Kate Rusby:

Monday, 4^th May 2026.

Now that County Ladies’ final season has come to a conclusion, attention turns to preparations for next season as Stockport County Women. One important item on the agenda will be the appointment of a manager. Chris Brown has done a splendid job as interim manager, but his title suggests he isn’t an automatic choice for the permanent job. One name I’ve heard suggested is that of Lou Roberts. Roberts was at Stoke City for thirteen years as player and coach, left there in 2023 to join Burnley and resigned from there as Head Coach in February this year. Burnley Women won the FAWNL Northern Premier Division this season, winning twenty, drawing two and losing none of their matches. She’s seen below, centre, in her days at Stoke.

The highlights of Saturday’s match are on You Tube now:

Facebook is a menace in many ways but it still turns up the occasional gem. This bloke popped recently popped up in my feed, so today’s tune is “The Whiskey Made Me Do It” by Anthony Gomes:

Tuesday, 5^th May 2026.

Congratulations to this Bolton fan who has learned, almost forty years after they were introduced, how the playoffs work:

County’s ticketing system picked a bad day to act the goat; whether it was cause or effect I don’t know, but when everyone with sufficient loyalty points logged on to get a Stevenage (A) ticket, the website had a fit of the vapours. I got mine OK, but others reported various issues, especially with the payment screen. The other big issue was knowing when we could collect our tickets; the normal system needs 48 hours between purchase and collection and as the office only opens on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, obviously some special measures would be required. I emailed the club and was told that they would be open from eight until four every day, which is great but not much use if they don’t tell everyone.

Steve Bardsley spoke to the ever-ebullient Matt Farley of The Stevenage FC Podcast for TSBW’s Stevenage preview. Matt’s giddy at the best of times and his team making the playoffs has fired his enthusiasm even further.

• Last Saturday: Matt describes seeing his team win through to the playoffs for the first time ever as the best day of his life. Wigan kept them at bay until the very last and the goal was a controversial one. It looked over the line to him in real time but it can be seen either way depending which videos or photos you look at.
• The fans’ view: Everyone is buzzing at the prospect of the playoffs for the first time. The home end is sold out for Saturday, in fact it sold out twice because at the first attempt they sold season ticket holders’ seats and had to repeat the exercise.
• Any preference for a particular opponent?: Matt wanted County on the grounds that they did the double over us, their only 100% record against the contenders.
• Next Saturday: Matt sees a home game in the first leg as their best chance of reaching the final; their home record is by far superior to their away. He predicts a 1-0 home win. It may be, however, that our enforced change of style will serve us better than lumping the ball up to Kyle Wootton as we did in the league game at their place.
• Next Wednesday: Stevenage have been offered 1,100 tickets and I was surprised to hear Matt say that he didn’t expect them to sell out. He expects a 1-1 drain and a victory for Stevenage on aggregate.
• Players to watch: I believe Matt mentioned the entire first team squad, so we’ll have to watch out for them all.

Matt’s enthusiasm is infectious; watch the whole pod to get in the mood for Saturday:

Today’s tune is my earworm for today and contains some cracking mandolin playing into the bargain. This is Planxty’s version of “The Jolly Beggar”:

Wednesday, 6^th May 2026.

Janice and I pottered down to EP this morning in the hope of collecting my Stevenage (A) ticket. Having got the vital piece of card, I made a massive error; I followed Janice into the club shop. When I emerged, my account was over a hundred quid lighter. It would have saved a lot of time if I’d just asked for one of everything as soon as I walked in.

I’m a big fan of The Price Of Football pod but you can go off people; Kevin Day opened today’s show by announcing that for him, as a Palace fan, today is Stockport Day. On 6^th May 2001, Palace needed a point from a game at EP to stay in Division One. In the 87^th minute, the referee missed a blatant handball by David Hopkin and Dougie Freedman ran the length of the field to score. The goal meant that Palace stayed up and Huddersfield were relegated. There’s a video clip here if you can bear it:

TSBW’s Main Show had Russ, Waggie, Andy and repeat fan guest Daz Sampson to cover all the doings in the County Universe.

• Barnsley (A):
  • Close at times: We were comfortable in the first half, they came out with a bit more intent in the second and got the equaliser. Once we got the second goal it was pretty much done.
  • Penalties: The one we got looked a bit soft but from DC’s post-match interview it seems there was physical evidence of a Barnsley player standing on Josh Stokes’ foot. The one that wasn’t given when Andrésson was fouled looked nailed on.
• Favourite away games:
  • Andy: Barnsley is in his Top 5 away games, and a dry do into the bargain. He even has his own chant, quite an accolade considering there are some of our players who haven’t got one of those.
  • Daz: His favourites include Peterborough at Wembley, QPR (A) in 1989 and, bizarrely, Caernarfon (A) in 1986.
• Stevenage (A):
  • Ticket sales: Surprisingly, sales got into the third loyalty phase with just over 1,000 going at time of recording. Perhaps the cost of so many away games in a short period of time has been a factor.
  • The perfect draw: Daz reckons so; with Kyle Wootton filling in at the back, we will have the pace up front with Barry and Sidibeh to get behind them. Our record against them isn’t great but that means little in the playoffs.
• The rumour mill:
  • Jack Diamond and Lewis Bate: They weren’t at Barnsley and there are unsubstantiated rumours about why that might be. Chally has said both are available and may play a part in the playoffs.
  • A Sheffield Wednesday fan account on Twitter claims Ethan Pye and Jack Diamond are on the verge of moving to Hillsborough. This sounds mad, especially where Pye, who has played every minute of the season, is concerned.
• Simon Wilson: The departure of a major figure at the club at the end of the season has sparked speculation about County’s direction of travel. Although Wilson was promoted to Chief Executive Officer some time ago, my memory is that he was still doing the Director Of Football’s job as well so we’ll need one of those at least. A progressive club with plans surely needs one, but getting one that works well with the manager is the difficult bit.
• Random Shit Of The Week: Andy had a belter lined up for this week, but due to an IT issue he had to create something on the hoof. All the questions were County v Stevenage related and it was an absolute cracker.

Another splendid episode, Daz is always excellent value, get it here:

In case anyone is unfamiliar with Daz’s stuff, today’s tune is one of his; “Teenage Life”:

Thursday, 7^th May 2026.

The County world seemed to be drawing its breath ready for the Stevenage (H) tickets to go on sale tomorrow, there was a definite dearth of news.

I notice, however, that Cheadle Town Stingers have announced that First Team Manager Steve Appleton will leave the club at the end of the 2025/26 season. Could that be a meaningful departure as far as County Women are concerned?

We had a trip out to Blackpool tonight to see a favourite band tear it up at a favourite venue, the Waterloo Music Bar.

The evening got off to a good start with a wood-fired pizza from the van outside and an enjoyable support spot from Carley’s Wreck and Ruin, a stripped-down version of vaudeville blues trio Jo Carley And The Old Dry Skulls.

The Urban Voodoo Machine have a fluid lineup; the core of Paul-Ronney Angel on guitar and vocals along with double bass, keyboards and twin drummers was there as usual but tonight we had a horn section of double saxophones instead of the trumpet and sousaphone we sometimes get. Even the lack of a lead guitar didn’t affect the wall of sound too much. I can’t recommend the band highly enough, it you get chance to see them, don’t pass it up.

Today’s song gives you an idea of their live show, this is “High Jeopardy Thing” followed by “Cheers For The Tears”:

Friday 8^th May 2026.

Given the way County’s ticketing system lost its mind earlier in the week, it came as no great surprise when it fell over again this morning. Even those who could find their pre-registered tickets couldn’t pay for them. The difficulty resulted in a huge queue of frustrated supporters trailing out onto Hardcastle Road. I always feel sorry for the ticket office staff when things like this happen, I hope they didn’t get any grief.

It was announced that Damien Allen is to be County’s new Sporting Director, taking up his new post from the beginning of July. Damien, who was a product of County’s Centre Of Excellence and played for the club between 2003 and 2007, has been Academy Manager for the last four years. He will be replaced at the academy by Mike Jeffries.

Looking at the photos on County’s Twitter feed, I notice that there’s no sign of Louie Barry. In the interest of balance, there are several other players not pictures either, so perhaps 20’s absence isn’t significant. I’ve decided to include him in my starting lineup anyway:

Today’s tune is by Stevenage band Bad Manners, a version of the “Can-Can” that would have Offenbach spinning in his casket:

See you all at Stevenage, animo et fide!