Saturday, 27^th September 2025.

Matchday, County v Reading, League 1.

I was in two minds about today’s fixture; on the one hand, there were definite signs of improvement against Cardiff and Rotherham, but on the other hand the news that a win would mean that this was our best ten game start for thirty years had me convinced we were doomed.

My guess at a team hinged on Tyler Onyango being fit to replace Corey O’Keeffe, so I got the first 11/11 of the season.

Given that the lad who sits three seats to our right got a stray shot in the face in the warm-up against Cardiff and I had to fend one off with my hand last week, we kept a wary eye on proceedings this time. His face and my hand are both showing signs of bruising but I suppose it’s a badge of honour of sorts.

Once the game got underway I thought we were decent, stroking the ball about nicely and looking dangerous at times. Ethan Pye hit the bar with a header and Odin Bailey shot narrowly wide. It took a poacher’s instinct from Kyle Wootton to get a goal for us, from our vantage point in the Cheadle End it was difficult to see what had actually happened, so there was an element of relief when the Ref indicated a goal. County continued to have the better of things from there until half time but the same old issue reared its head yet again; we don’t put teams away when we’re on top.

We know how the story goes by now, we gradually fade in the second half, allowing opposition teams to get the upper hand. That’s not to say we didn’t create any chances at all, Jack Diamond really should have scored and Beno Andrésson had a shot superbly saved. The seemingly inevitable equaliser came in the seventy-second minute, a long sweeping pass to Ritchie who passed to Jack Marriott who put it away. DC reacted by introducing Jayden Fevrier and Nathan Lowe to replace Odin Bailey and Beno Andrésson. Fevs ran riot down the right but shot a couple of times when he might been better crossing, and when he did cross they went too far for anyone to get a head on them. Our desperation to get the winner led to increasingly frantic and inaccurate play and I never felt we were going to get more than the one point.

Today’s tune, inspired by the inevitability of it all this afternoon, is “The Old Dance” by the Oysterband:

Sunday, 28^th September 2025.

Matchday: Stockport County Ladies v Liverpool U21, FAWNL Cup Group R.

The Ladies were at Edgeley Park this afternoon instead of their usual home of Stockport Sports Village. The change of venue attracted a record attendance for a Ladies’ match of 1,690 fans.

Here’s how the team looked:

Before kick-off, both teams paid tribute for Matt Beard, a superb advocate of the women’s game in this country, and Billy Vigar, the young Chichester City FC player who died last week after sustaining a brain injury in a match.

Liverpool took the lead on thirty-eight minutes when Maddy Duffy scored from the edge of the area. County had chances to equalise but were 1-0 down at the break.

Steve O’Hara made changes for the second half, Abbie Podmore and Em Bradshaw replacing Olivia Greenhalgh and Courteney Csomor. County pressed hard to get level but it just wasn’t happening. Further substitutions were made to step things up, Nat Watson, Mollie Newton and Fran Davies being replaced by Shaunna Jein, Livvi Turkington & Olivia Wilson. This bore fruit five minutes later when Shaunna Jein crossed for Jess Battle to head the ball home and County were level. With ten minutes of normal time to go, the girls were down to ten when captain Kenedy Owen suffered an injury that prevented her from continuing and all the subs had been used. Despite this setback, County held out until the final whistle to take a point. Emma Lysons was deemed to be Player of the Match.

The result leaves County in third place in Group R, which means they will compete in the FAWNL Plate competition. The draw has been made already, and County will play Sunderland Women PGA at Stockport Sports Village on the 19^th of October.

County Ladies’ next match is on Sunday, back at SSV, an FA Cup tie against Gateshead Leam Rangers.

Today’s tune, in the spirit of County welcoming the Ladies to play at Edgeley Park, is Merry Hell with “We Are Different, We Are One”:

Monday, 29^th September 2025.

This week’s TSBW Match Review was presented by Jimmy Harmer, accompanied by Dan Culverwell, Steve Bardsley and Dan Johnson. It went like this:

• The (in)glorious Cheadle End: We’ve only scored at the CE once this season; is Andy Reding right when he says it makes no odds which way we kick in the second half?
• The team: At last, a predictable line-up; Hinchliffe in nets, a back three of Pye, Hills and Olowu, Onyango and Osborn as wingbacks, Bailey and Norwood in the middle, Diamond in the hole with Wootton and Andrésson up front. Dan J. was hoping for four at the back but Chally seems dead against it.
• First half: As against Cardiff, we were excellent in the first period and might even have scored more than our usual single goal had Ethan Pye managed to get his header a few inches lower. We have so much talent in the team and come so close to scoring so many times, that the panel feel confident that things will click eventually. It’s a good job Kyle Wootton was able to score, even if there was a breathless hush around the ground while we waited to see if it had a) really gone in and b) hadn’t been disallowed.
• Second half: Reading grew into the game and we fell back in our usual style. A possession stat of only 41% in the second half tells its own story. It was seventy-eight minutes before we made any substitutions, perhaps we need to be more proactive rather than wait for our opponents to make the first move. Jack Diamond’s miss with only the ‘keeper to beat was disappointing, the pass to set him away by Odin Bailey deserved better. Reading’s goal was a belter; the long diagonal pass from Charlie Savage to Matt Ritche, the incisive pass to Jack Marriott who put the chance away would have done for plenty of teams. The issue isn’t that we conceded, that’s always a possibility, the problem is that we didn’t score more goals when we were on top.
• Ref watch: Nothing too remarkable, but he waved away a blatant backpass to the ‘keeper in the second half.
• What is to be done? Should Norwood be subbed at the seventy-minute mark, where his quality seem to drop off? With Camps and Bate injured and Fiorini yet to show his expected quality, and Onyango and Osborn forced onto the wings by injuries to Edun and Dodgson, perhaps we don’t have the options. We are definitely missing Tanto Olaofe’s pace up front, teams couldn’t fully commit forward if they were wary of him breezing past them having latched onto a through ball. A fit and motivated Mothersille, if there is such a thing, has pace but doesn’t play in the same forward position as Tanto. Have Diamond and Andrésson had enough starts without scoring for the time being, will Lowe get more of a chance with another international break approaching?

Agree or disagree, the discussion is well worth watching:

All is not lost; despite our shortcomings, we remain in seventh place, well in touch with the teams above us.

PPG Prophet’s latest graph also shows that we’re managing to keep in touch, we just need to find a bit of consistency and our scoring boots:

This excellent Access All Areas special from the Ladies’ appearance at Edgeley Park follows the usual format we see from the men’s team:

During Saturday’s match, Janice and I learned that a friend of ours from the caravan site had passed away. John Berry was a lovely man with a ready wit and an endless fund of stories. He’d been a foreman at the flight sheds at Woodford and was known around the area as “Vulcan John.” He retained a typical foreman’s quiet sense of humour despite being retired some twenty years. Today’s tune is for John, Fontaines D.C.’s version of “A Man You Don’t Meet Every Day”:

Tuesday, 30^th September 2025.

Leon Ryder and Kelvin Briggs are walking to Port Vale and back when County play there at the end of October. All funds generated will go to support Mentell, the UK charity that provides groups for males aged 18+ to talk in a safe and confidential space, free from advice and judgement. Please give here:

On the back of some criticism of the team as a whole after another Groundhog Day result on Saturday, I’ve been pondering over where we are at the moment. Considering their youth and relative lack of experience I think Hills, Olowu and Pye are doing a cracking job at the back. If Hoskonen is as good as we hope, I can see him coming in to add some experience to the mix. Osborn is doing a decent job considering he’s only playing where he is because of The Curse Of The County Left Backs. Diamond and, to a lesser extent, Fevs, seem to have Stephenson’s Disease, which causes the sufferer to weave down cul-de-sacs then lose his way and the ball as well. Lowe and Andrésson 3are both supposed to be great natural finishers; if that’s true then we need to get the ball to them where they can show us what they can do. Thank goodness we have Kyle Wootton, he seems to be our only serious goal threat at the moment. Could our tendency to lose intensity in the last twenty minutes of games be a fitness issue? The monitoring the club have in place will surely show if that’s the case and the staff will be doing their best to address it.

The club’s highlights of Saturday’s game are available now. Those of a sensitive nature might wish to avoid the last three minutes.

I went along to Edgeley at lunchtime to watch the renaming ceremony for the Thompson Street Bridge. It was christened the “Driver John Axon Bridge” after the hero of the Chapel-en-le-Frith crash in February 1957.

Today’s tune is the whole of the radio documentary, with music by Ewan MacColl, about the crash and John Axon’s heroic part in mitigating the scale of the disaster:

Wednesday, 1^st October 2025.

Mark Stott broke his usual radio silence to appear on Peterborough owner Darragh MacAnthony’s podcast “The Hard Truth” this week. It sounds very much as though his appearance was a condition of us signing Malik Mothersille but whatever the reason, it’s well worth a listen:

Everyone at The Scarf Bergara Wore is buzzing to announce that we have reached the finals of the Northwest Football Awards 2025!

We’re up against some seriously tough competition in Citeh, United and Burnley pods, but to be recognised alongside them is a huge honour for our fan-led, independent pod & blog. Massive thanks to everyone who listens, watches, reads, shares & supports – this is down to you as much as us.

The club’s Community Trust does fantastic work around the borough. It covers all age groups too; for instance, they run free weekly football sessions for the armed forces community on Friday evenings at Power League, allowing them to stay active, connect and represent County. The SCFC Armed Forces team started the new season in style, beating Morecambe Vets 6-1.

This week’s main pod from TSBW was chaired by Russ Johnson with Waggie, Andy Reding and fan guest Matt Brady. First item on the agenda was Mark Stott’s appearance on Darragh MacAnthony’s podcast.

• Five-year plan: We all know about the seven-year plan to get into the Championship, but it appears a new one is now being prepared with a view to reaching the Premier League. Ambitious, certainly, but it’s good to know that the owner is in for the long haul. Could we last more than a season? Who knows, but the idea of visiting Anfield, The Etihad, The Emirates and others on equal terms is mind-boggling.
• Ground development: The new Pop Side stand won’t happen this side of the Premier League. The spend per head isn’t enough to finance such a massive undertaking on its own.
• An owner not a dabbler: Mark accepts he’s too emotional and doesn’t have the football knowledge to get involved in that side of things, he leaves it all to Simon Wilson.
• The budget: No (current) plans to spend more in the January transfer window. The expected spend to get to the Championship was £25M, he’s already £29M in and counting. He has a maximum outlay in mind but we aren’t there yet. He doesn’t expect costs to rise too much between League 1 and mid-table Championship, assuming we can keep some of the same squad.
• Exit strategy: Stott’s primary driver was, and remains, giving sports education opportunities to the young people of the borough. He expects to remain involved in that side of things even once he’s no longer active with the football club.
• Simon Wilson: Simon got Mark involved in the first place and Mark doesn’t envisage staying on if Simon was to leave.
• Proudest moment: Winning the National League to get the club back into the league.
• Key players: Ben Hinchliffe, who epitomises the club’s progress in the Stott era, Paddy Madden, who had the personality and goal-scoring ability to drive us up the divisions, and Louie Barry who showed astonishing progress in his two spells with us.

Getting back to the football, the panel turned their attention to the game against Reading:

• A decent performance, marred by a lapse of concentration leading to the equaliser. It was almost as though Reading had taken Cardiff’s correspondence course.
• Odin Bailey: A revelation playing alongside Ollie Norwood.
• Kyle Wootton: Has added a clinical touch in front of goal to his acknowledged skill as a target man.
• Small margins: If we could just score more than once when we’re on top, there’d be no holding us. Our strikers perhaps just need to relax and let their instincts take over rather than over-thinking things.
• Substitutions: Perhaps they were a bit late again this time, we seem to be less proactive than last season.

Turning to Huddersfield on Saturday:

• Could this be the game where we give someone a good doing?
• Everyone thinks we’ll win; Matt suggests 3-1, Andy 4-2, Waggie 5-0 and Russ 2-0.

Agree, disagree or just shout at the screen, it’s all here for you:

Mark Stott’s mention of Louie Barry reminded me of all the times we were told we shouldn’t fall in love with a loan player. Today’s tune is Lick The Tins’ answer to that, “Can’t Help Falling In Love”:

Thursday, 2^nd October 2025.

The County Supporters’ Co-Op recently held an informal meeting with Martyn Henderson, Chief Operating Officer of the new Independent Football Regulator.

The meeting gave us the chance discover what the changes will mean for fans.

We know from our recent history how fragile football clubs can be. It’s to prevent such problems being repeated that the IFR is being created. Its purpose is simple: to protect clubs from financial collapse, to hold owners to account and to ensure that fans have a real say in the future of the teams they love.

From the 2027-28 season, every club from the Premier League to the National League will need an IFR licence. To get one, a club must prove three things: that it is financially sustainable, that it has proper governance in place and that it listens to its fans. For the first time in English football, consultation with supporters will be a legal requirement. That doesn’t mean fans will have a veto, but it does mean clubs must show evidence that our voices are considered on big issues like ticket prices, the direction of the club and any changes to heritage such as badges, colours, or stadiums. If they fail, the IFR can intervene. Each club will have a named IFR supervisor, giving fans a direct point of contact.

The Co-op will make full use of the IFR once our dedicated point of contact is confirmed. That means raising the issues that matter to our members and making sure their voices are heard where it counts.

For County supporters and fans across the country this is an historic change. The IFR was created because fans demanded it. It won’t solve everything overnight, but it will make clubs safer, more stable and more accountable to those who matter most: the supporters.

A warning about traffic on Saturday from Michael Shoard, who’s appeared on the pod as a fan guest in the past:

“For anyone driving over to Huddersfield on Saturday, the traffic from the A57 through Mottram/Hollingworth (and the other way via the edge of Stalybridge) is horrendous these days because of roadworks, especially new 4 way lights at Hollingworth, the local FB pages have been saying it’s gridlocked a lot of the time.” I’d go M60 – M62 – A640 myself, but doubtless our driver on the Flyer will have sussed out the best way.

Today marks the fiftieth birthday of Dave Challinor, a man owed so much by so many County fans. His capacity to learn and adapt as he and the team have risen up through the leagues is quite astonishing.

Talking is very important, whether it’s between fans and clubs, between ourselves on the forums or at self-help communities like Mentell. Today’s tune on that theme is by Steve Hooker and Wilko Johnson, “I want To Talk To You”:

Friday 3^rd October 2025.

The Scarf Bergara Wore’s website really is the one-stop shop for County content. There’s a news section with Hatters stuff from all over the web, links to all the podcasts, media including photos from Andrew Machin and Mike Petch, blogs from Josh, Reidy and me, all the stats you’ll ever need and a match centre for each game as it comes up.

On the subject of which, my fellow TSBW blogger Josh has filled a long-felt want with an exploration of XG, what it means and how it can help us understand what’s going on with the team:

I see no reason to change the team for tomorrow, one or two up front have yet to find their best form but aren’t going to do that sat on the bench.

Lauren Hedley is back for this week’s TSBW’s Match Preview Show, talking to Richard Kosmala of the Terriers pod “And He Takes That Chance” about tomorrow’s match:

• With a new manager, Lee Grant (one of a short list of managers named after WW2 tanks) and thirteen new players in the squad, Terriers fans should perhaps be pleased with fifth place at this stage, but defeats by local rivals Barnsley and Bradford have taken the gloss off an excellent early start.
• Grant is in his first post as a manager and is still in search of a style and a starting eleven. He will be expected to get them into the playoffs as a minimum.
• They tend to fade after a good half hour or so, and have yet to perform for a full ninety minutes. Sounds very familiar.
• Also familiar is their injury list, including some long-term ones to important players.
• Among their expensive recruits is Alfie May from Birmingham but he’s generally been used off the bench so far.
• The game tomorrow will be the first where the club have been sole owners of the ground. Richard characterised it as “the battle of the scoreboards,” their new one is of a size and brightness to rival even our own prodigious effort.
• Another parallel with County is that the area around the stadium is in need of regeneration.
• Richard expects the forecast poor weather to have an effect of the game and predicts a 2-1 win for his team, Loz thinks a 2-2 draw more likely.

See it all here:

Geordie Hatter’s Show is a major part of the awayday experience for me, so I was delighted to see that Jonathan will be on the air tomorrow at 09:30. We’re promised all the usual features; info on the opposition, history of their home town, tunes, broadcast-quality jingles, a County fan guest and the chance to join in with the chat via the Mixlr app.

In view of the weather promised for tomorrow, today’s tune is “Dance Before The Storm” by The Levellers:

See you all at Huddersfield!

Animo et fide.