Saturday, 16^th May 2026.

This is going to be a strange week; we’re in the do or die end of the football season but we don’t have a game until a week tomorrow.

The playoff final tickets went on open sale this morning at 10:00 after season ticket holders and members had bought over five thousand between them. While there’s no doubt that the current system is more stable and reliable than its predecessor, especially with the queuing system in place, it still has its issues:

• It doesn’t allow fans to choose individual seats. Every concert venue offers this facility, unless they’re a free-for-all, and we had it last time we went to Wembley for a playoff final. The club don’t accept this as a shortcoming. Why does that matter, you (or the club) might ask:
  • In my case, I’ve got knackered ankles so I can’t stand for more than a few minutes at a time. I need a seat at the end of a row and an unobstructed view, i.e. where I know someone won’t spend the entire game stood up in front of me.
  • One member of the Co-op board needed to order fifteen seats together for his group. They wanted to seven on one row and eight on the row behind but had to settle for all fifteen on one row.
• The acknowledgements of order sent out by email don’t give block, row or seat numbers. Never mind, you can check which seat you’ve got by going on the ticketing site and looking at your order history. Unless…
• This morning the system was inaccessible until the general sale began at ten o’clock. Season ticket holders and members couldn’t order seats or check their existing orders.

It has to be said that the system, for all its faults, had managed to sell over 10,000 tickets at close of play today.

County Ladies’ former manager, Steve O’Hara has joined Widnes Town Women:

We’re going to use blue as our musical theme this week; today’s tune is “Breakfast At Tiffany’s” by Deep Blue Something:

Sunday, 17^th May 2026.

The club and the fanbase together are often referred to as “The County Family” and the truth of this was amply demonstrated in the run up to the Playoff final at Wembley. With the constant rise in the cost of living, following County to the national stadium was beyond many fans.

For some, however, help was at hand; County stalwart John Nelson posted on social media that he was offering to pay ticket and travel costs for two adults and two children from the SK3 area. He had so many applications that he increased his offer to a total of twelve tickets. Even so, with many more applicants than he had tickets, John had to use all his knowledge and that of his friends, plus intelligence from social media, to narrow the numbers down.

With such obvious demand for help, the Co-op board felt it was an appropriate use of funds to add to John’s total, and with the help of the club’s Community Trust he was able to recommend two single parents, both with a child each.

The Co-op was approached by another individual, who prefers to remain anonymous, who wished to donate to help a struggling family go to Wembley. We were able to nominate a father and son, season ticket holders from Offerton, who would otherwise be unable to attend the final. Their travel to Wembley was kindly arranged at half price by Edgeley Con Club Coaches via one of the organisers, also a member of the board.

At the time of writing we don’t know how the game will go; what we do know is that eighteen County fans will be able to enjoy the day through the generosity of other supporters; this is the County family in action.

It looks like the Torch pub is going to be the best choice for thirsty County fans on Sunday; Wealdstone FC, the Green Man and Box Park all seem to be allocated to Bolton.

Today’s tune is the Albion Morris Men’s version of “The Blue-Eyed Stranger”:

Monday, 18^th May 2026.

Further evidence of County’s standing as a community-centred club came with the invitation, in conjunction with the Trunk marketing agency, to four Edgeley businesses to enjoy hospitality at the last game of the season:

https://twitter.com/StockportCounty/status/2056079872758272111/video/1

Ollie Norwood has been presented with the PFA’s Select Car Leasing Fans’ Player of the Month Award for April:

Today’s tune is from the Blues Brothers 2000 film, “Looking For A Fox.” Some cracking horns on this track, by the way:

Tuesday, 19^th May 2026.

What with National Rail digging the track up near Wigan, United and Everton fans heading to the south-east and the EFL handing us a one o’clock kick-off, getting to Wembley by any means other than by road is looking a nightmare. I’m a great advocate for train travel, but what with the cost and the unreliability these days it’s no wonder people drive everywhere. There are County fans all over social media bemoaning the fact that we, and Bolton, have got to troop down to that London when we could play the final closer to home but Wembley is the FA’s cash cow; they don’t care how hard it is to get there and they certainly aren’t going to hire the Etihad or United’s midden when they could use their own ground.

Bolton have admitted that Johnny Kenny, the striker they have on loan from Celtic, won’t be fit to play on Sunday. He scored the opener in the 2-2 draw at their place in April. They have other decent options, of course; Burstow and Rodrigues are no mugs, and even Dalby looks much improved since we had him on loan.

The big news of the day, of course, came late; the EFL have disqualified Southampton from Saturday’s Championship playoff final, because they’ve admitted sending an intern to spy on Middlesbrough’s preparations for a league game in May. They’ve also admitted doing the same thing earlier in the season with Oxford and Ipswich. The information they gleaned doesn’t seem to have helped them much, they lost to Oxford and drew with Ipswich and Middlesbrough.

There’s an appeal set for tomorrow but given that Southampton have admitted the charges, they can only be appealing the severity of the punishment. There’s obviously no guarantee they would have won the playoff but their cheating has robbed them of a chance of promotion and the £220M or so that comes with it. It’s pretty shit for the fans, having made costly arrangements to travel to Wembley on Saturday they’ll be well out of pocket.

The rules around watching rival teams’ training were introduced after Leeds United were caught spying on Derby County’s preparations in 2019 but, perhaps significantly, the possible punishments weren’t laid down at the time. Leeds were fined the relatively modest amount of £220,000. The outcome of the appeal will be fascinating.

Today’s tune is “Blue Angel” by Roddy Radiation & The Skabilly Rebels:

Wednesday, 20^th May 2026.

Steve Bardsley of The Scarf Bergara Wore had a chat about Sunday’s match with Dan of the Bolton Fanzone Podcast: It went like this:

• Both were feeling pretty zen about the contest with four days to go.
• Bolton’s season: Dan may almost have been talking about County; they have struggled in what were supposed to be the easier games but have done better when the more fancied teams have been prepared to play.
• Injuries:
  • Johnny Kenny: Although his injured knee isn’t massively serious, he won’t be fit for Sunday and has returned to Celtic, his parent club.
  • Eoin Toal: Their captain and central defender suffered a hamstring injury at the end of the season. He may or may not be fit to play.
  • Marcus Forss: The Finnish forward on loan from Middlesbrough has been injured for most of the season. What is it about Finnish players in League 1, I wonder?
  • Sam Dalby: On his way back from injury, most likely to start on the bench.
  • Amario Cozier-Duberry: Rapid winger on loan from Brighton, now fully recovered from injury.
• The Wembley pitch: There’s been talk about how Bolton’s wide men will exploit the massive pitch but it’s actually the same size as their own.
• Attendance: County are likely to be outnumbered at least 2:1. Bolton expect to be somewhere around 30 -35,000. I believe the Attendance Polizei will still let the game go ahead though.
• Formation: Both teams generally play 4-2-3-1.
• Weaknesses: George Johnson is really a central defender but has been playing out of position as a fullback and Max Conway is better going forward than he is defending. The wingers are now doing their bit in defence, something they were neglecting earlier in the season.
• Who will wear what?: It seems both will play in their home kits, despite both involving a fair bit of white.
• Predictions: Dan is going for a narrow win for his team, perhaps 2-1.

An ideal taster to whet the appetite for Sunday; watch it in full here:

Ben Hinchliffe’s testimonial year is really starting to take shape, with the golf day already open for bookings and now this:

On Tuesday night, members of Help The Hatters attended Stockport Rocks, a celebration of local volunteers, held at Edgeley Park. Dot Jones was nominated and received a Certificate of Appreciation for all that she does along with the rest of the group throughout the year.

The HTH gang from left to right: Edd Powell, Dot Jones, Angela Moore and Terry Arnold:

Predictably, Southampton’s appeal against their disqualification from the Championship playoff final has been unsuccessful, so Middlesbrough will play Hull on Saturday in what is said to be the most valuable club match in the world.

Today’s tune is a live “Train Wreck Blues” by the Urban Voodoo Machine:

Thursday, 21^st May 2026.

This, from Michael Shoard’s Facebook feed, is a proper hostage to fortune but I couldn’t resist including it:

TSBW’s Main Show last night was brought to us by Russ Johnson, Andy Reding, Steve Bardsley and serial fan guest Ben “Elite Ginge” Robinson. Here’s the executive summary of a packed show:

• Confidence for Sunday:
  • Andy: It’s happening. We’re in the Championship next season.
  • Ben: It’s our time, quietly confident.
  • Steve: Confident since we played Barnsley.
  • Russ: Apprehensive; it could go either way.
• What about Bolton?: They seem quietly confident too and they have a decent strike force with particular quality down one wing just like we have.
• Attendance: They’ll take a lot more than us but that’s hardly a surprise given their history. We’ll be louder than them, man for man.
• Ticketing: We were limited to four per account but it appears Bolton got six. The fact that Salford could choose their seats for their game, despite using the same provider as us, is particularly galling.
• Travel: Given that the trains are a disaster, how are the panel getting there?:
  • Ben: A lift with a mate.
  • Steve: SK6 Coaches.
  • Andy and Russ: Edgeley Con Club Coaches. Andy is a steward on one of the armada of fifteen that ECCC have organised.
  • Will the coaches from the two clubs be routed differently to avoid them meeting at the services?
• Is Wembley the right venue? Opinion is divided but whatever the fans think, the FA will want the games at Wembley to get the revenue in. Fans who are all about the whole day out would generally prefer Wembley. Those, like me, who are just about the match would be happy with a more local venue.
•  How will the game go?: Cozier-Duberry will be a threat, Tayo Edun and Ben Osborn will need to be on their mettle to keep him at bay. The use of Kyle Wootton in defence has forced us to concentrate more on our ground game so we’ll be a different proposition than when we played our opponents earlier in the season. Will Odin Bailey seize the day? Will Jack Diamond or Malik Mothersille suddenly come to the fore?
• What strange omens are these?: Last time we were promoted to the second tier, Arsenal won the league. Also, a 2-0 victory would make nice symmetry with the opening day of the season.
• Podcast news:
  • Changes are coming for the new season; Russ will concentrate on special interviews with people of interest and will cede control of the main show to Andy and Waggie. He will make occasional guest appearances from time to time.
  • There will be a special pod with Ben Hinchliffe in front of a small select audience at the start of June as part of the GOAT’s testimonial year. As well as being fascinating in its own right, the evening will be an opportunity for Ben to publicise the other events he has in store, such as the Stockport Gin launch, the golf day and the testimonial match in August, which is believed to be against one of Ben’s old clubs, Preston North End.

• Random Shit Of The Week: There were hundreds of points on offer in Andy’s trivia quiz, I managed the grand total of three.

A cracking pod, es ever, watch it here:

The club have issued a ticketing update this afternoon:

• Over 13,000 have been sold so far.
• Tickets go off sale at 2pm on Saturday.
• Tickets are now available on Level 2.
• Tickets will start being sent out “within the next few hours.”

Today’s song is “My Blue Heaven” by The Pogues:

Friday 22^nd May 2026.

As promised, my Wembley tickets arrived by email last night “Tickets,” I hear you ask, “Why does he need more than one when Janice isn’t going?” The answer, as usual, is part cock-up and part craftiness. The ideal ticket, end of a row overlooking a gangway, turned out to be in the family area so I bought another that’s slightly less ideal but in an area I’m entitled to be in. All this bollocks could have been avoided if County had organised matters so we could pick individual seats.

County have issued a definitive list of pubs available to us on Sunday:

The announcement some ten days ago that that Stockport Town FC were resigning from the North West Counties League has been followed today by the news that Cheadle Town FC is to be acquired by Stott Capital Sports Investments. As ever, the devil is in the detail; as part of the takeover, County Women will play their games at Ground Up Solutions Stadium and Cheadle Town Stingers, the associated women’s team, is to be disbanded. Stingers were County Ladies’ local rivals and finished ahead of the Ladies in the league this season. This news has gone down like a lead balloon with the supporters of Cheadle Town and, particularly, the Stingers.

I hope this is the last time I hear the expression for a while; today’s tune is “The Rout Of The Blues” by Pilgrims’ Way:

See you at Wembley!

Animo et fide.