Saturday, 4^th October 2025.

Matchday, Huddersfield Town v County, League 1.

After the usual healthy breakfast, the was no left-over takeaway available this morning, it was off for a flu jab this morning. A nice little treat from the NHS for us retired folk.

For the second away game on the trot, I was able to listen to Geordie Hatter’s Awayday Show before setting off to catch the Flyer. It was a slightly shorter edition than usual, as Jonathan was going to the match himself, but well worth a listen nevertheless:

Given that Storm Amy was still throwing her weight about, I was delighted to find that Dave The Driver was already waiting on Lowndes Lane when we arrived half an hour before our scheduled departure time. Almost every seat had been sold for the Flyer, even though we’d gone for the 61-seater, which is very encouraging for the rest of the season. For an enterprise starting the season with nothing in the bank, the fixture planners made life difficult by serving up long trips to Wycombe and Orient to start with but a run of more local trips should see us move into the black and be less reliant on the generous support of Help The Hatters. The increasing number of families choosing our more sedate brand of away travel is particularly heartening.

I passed the trip by watching Leeds v Spurs but being somewhat sleep-deprived recently, I think I dozed most of the way. The sun was shining on arrival but with an ever-present threat of a downpour. You may judge the strength of the wind by the shape of my beard in this selfie by Simon George:

My guess at a team earned me my second 11/11 on the trot:

Unsurprisingly, the sunshine didn’t last and as I looked for a seat near the front, the heavens opened and sent those in the first few rows scuttling for cover.

Fortunately, the deluge soon passed and I was able to grab a seat right at the front without getting too soggy.

County, as usual, set off on the front foot, most of the play taking place away from us at the Family Stand end. We got occasional glimpses at our end when Town contrived to get forward on the break but our ever-improving and youthful back three coped with almost everything. Anything else was thwarted by Ben Hinchliffe, although he looked in trouble at one stage when he took one amidships and had to take a minute or two to gather his thoughts. The only way Huddersfield could cope with Jack Diamond and Beno Andrésson in particular was to drag them down and Referee Toner might have done more to protect our forwards. Just as it looked as though our dominance would fail to bring material results, Brad Hills was pulled down in the penalty area and we had a penalty. The very best can miss the occasional spot kick but Ollie Norwood just exudes confidence and he sent the ‘keeper the wrong way to put us one up. The home fans spent more energy chiacking at the officials than they did supporting their team, which was surprising as they seemed to be getting the better of the decisions.

The second half continued in the same vein, County looking organised, measured and dangerous, until Tyler Onyango, who has looked better and better every game, was booked twice in five minutes and had to leave the pitch. I’ve heard it suggested that one or both of the bookings were unjustified, but I couldn’t tell from my lowly vantage point. Down to ten and only a single goal to the good, I confess I feared the worst. That it’s never easy to play against ten men is one of the unwritten laws of the game though, and despite being outnumbered County continued to be the better team. DC responded to the loss of Onyango by saying “On ya go” to Jayden Fevrier and Corey O’Keeffe, who replaced Beno Andrésson and Joseph Olowu. We might even have gone further ahead if Diamond and Fevrier had converted opportunities when they were through on goal, but they couldn’t quite finish them off. Step forward the transformed Odin Bailey with a goal of the season contender; the celebration after he curled a shot round the ‘keeper into the top corner took place right in front of where I was sitting and it was glorious to see how much it matters to this group of players, they seem every bit as invested as the fans. That left County with twelve minutes plus time added to keep the Terriers at bay and Dave Challinor swapped Owen Moxon for Diamond to shore up the midfield. Six minutes of injury time didn’t bode well and the home team managed to get a goal back in the 92^nd minute, which made us all twitchy. DC attempted to break up the rhythm by introducing further subs, Callum Connolly and Nathan Lowe replacing Bailey and Wootton. Strive as they might, Huddersfield failed to make any further impact and after what seemed like twenty minutes rather than six, that nice Mr. Toner blew his whistle and we had three points to take home to Stockport.

I was a long way from it all, but I understand that the home fans in the same end as us took advantage of the inadequate segregation arrangements to pelt the County fans with missiles as they were leaving. That’s your famous Yawkshire hospitality, right there. It appears they annoyed our manager as well; there’s a video clip of him telling them to FRO and quite right too.

It was a happy Flyer that made its way back over the Pennines and again I planned to pass the time by watching Chelsea v Liverpool but dozed most of the way. Janice collected me from the Offerton Coach Terminal and I was home in time for the second half of the teatime match. A most satisfactory day.

Today’s tune, for obvious reasons, is “Here Comes The Rain” by The Mavericks:

Sunday, 5^th October 2025.

Matchday: Stockport County Ladies v Gateshead Leam Rangers, FA Cup.

Before getting into the details of today’s match, we have a news item of note; after another lacklustre performance yesterday, Blackpool, our opponents next Saturday, have sacked Steve Bruce and most of his coaching staff. Stephen Dobbie and Steve Banks are in interim charge of the wreckage. This quote from Bruce made me chuckle; “I can try and make as many excuses as I want but it’s not in my nature to do it,” because in my experience he does it all the time. He only got the job the week after we beat them last season, it’s a pity they couldn’t keep him on for another week.

Anyhoo, back to the main business of the day; here’s how County Ladies lined up for today’s third qualifying round FA Cup tie at Stockport Sports Village:

Before the game, County and Rangers stood side-by-side to show solidarity and support of Kira Rai of Peterborough United Women and everyone in football, past and present, who has suffered from racism. Rai was the subject of online racist abuse after signing for Posh from Derby County earlier this week.

County got the upper hand over their opponents as early as the twelfth minute. A free kick on the edge of the penalty area led to pinball in the six-yard box but Em Bradshaw pounced to score. Just four minutes later, a move involving Shaunna Jein and Livvi Turkington resulted in Em Bradshaw facing the ‘keeper one-against-one and putting County two up. Rangers got one back at this stage, but on thirty-two minutes Abbie Podmore calmed any nerves by scoring after her own shot rebounded from a defensive block. A minute before half time, Em Lysons made it 4-1 with a cracking strike into the top right-hand corner.

County continued their dominance into the second half, substitute Courteney Csomor prodding the ball home on sixty-seven minutes after another bout of penalty area pinball. Emily Bradshaw then completed a superb hat-trick with a strike from the edge of the penalty area. Em got her fourth and County’s seventh on eighty-nine minutes and Nat Watson completed the 8-1 rout straight from the kick-off.

The Player Of The Match award, unsurprisingly, went to the scorer of four goals, Em Bradshaw.

Stu Hope, presenter of TSBW’s County Ladies Podcast, informs me that the draw for the regionalised first round proper is on Monday night at 7pm and the game will take place on the 26^th of October.

County Ladies’ scheduled league game this Sunday, against Durham Cestria away, has been postponed. Their next game is therefore on Sunday 19^th October against Sunderland Women PGA in the FAWNL Plate.

Janice and I were out at the Plaza tonight to see Too Much Too Young – The Music of 2 Tone & Beyond. We met Simon George and Sarah Williams as we queued to get in:

It was a smashing evening, and highly recommended if you get chance to see them.

Today’s tune is one they covered, “Mirror In The Bathroom” by The Beat:

Monday, 6^th October 2025.

This week’s TSBW Match Review came to us with Jimmy Harmer, Dave Whitehead, Steve Bardsley and, making his debut as a late replacement for his ailing father, Toby Culverwell. The main points of an entertaining discussion were as follows:

• The team: Another 11/11 for most of us, with Chally keeping the same team as last week. Should Jayden Fevrier have replaced Jack Diamond? The general consensus was that although Jack’s final ball might require a bit of a polish, he still does vital work carrying the ball forward. Jayden is perhaps at his best coming later on to torment a tiring defence.
• First half: For the first twelve minutes or so we were camped in our opponents’ half, the only disappointment being that we didn’t score.
• Beno Andrésson should maybe have been awarded a penalty and had other opportunities to score. He tries to be more clinical now than last season, he might be better letting his instincts take over. Use the force, Beno, as Yoda might say, if he was a County fan. His interplay with Kyle Wootton becomes ever more impressive and it will be interesting to see how Chally chooses to deal with his absence against Blackpool, will he play Nathan Lowe or start with Fevrier instead?
• Tyler Onyango: Some player he’s turning into. The Town fans didn’t take to him at all, which speaks volumes about his effectiveness. His height means he doesn’t look like an archetypal wing back but he’s very effective at it.
• Norwood (pen): The award might be thought of as soft but if you pull an opponent’s shirt in the area under the nose of the referee, you can’t have any complaints. We can’t assume Oliver Norwood will never miss a spot kick but he gives me more confidence when he steps up than any County player ever has before.
• Second half: No subs to begin with and started off well again. Onyango received his first yellow card for a shirt pull that others got away with throughout the match. His second, for clipping a Town player who was getting away, was less defensible.
• Substitutions: Much more effective than in previous weeks, bringing Fevrier and O’Keeffe on for Andrésson and Olowu kept the pressure on Huddersfield and prevented them from besieging our penalty area. They didn’t deal with their man advantage, leaving the centre clear for Diamond and Fevrier to waltz through and they both might have done more with their opportunities.
• Odin Bailey: It was widely believed that he was on his way in the transfer window, but what a transformation since he won his place back in the absence of Lewis Bate. His winning goal was a well-deserved reward for the way he’s kept his head down and worked to make himself part of the starting eleven.
• Brad Hills: Had Alfie May taped, the ex-Birmingham striker moved to wing to get away and became totally ineffective as a result.
• Man of the Match: Various suggestions were put forward; Norwood, Bailey, Hills, even Ben Hinchliffe’s wedding tackle for the painful but effective save its owner made in the first half.

Enjoy it yourself here:

The League 1 table has us in seventh place, one below the playoffs and Saturday’s opponents only on goal difference.

PPG Prophet’s latest graph has also taken on a brighter aspect with the three points we gained on Saturday:

County Ladies have been drawn at home against Tranmere in the first round proper of the Women’s FA Cup. The match will be played at Stockport Sports Village on the 26^th of this month at 2:00 PM.

Mention of Tranmere prompts me to feature that town’s most famous export, Half Man Half Biscuit. Today’s tune takes us back to those strange lockdown days and their “Token Covid Song”:

Tuesday, 7^th October 2025.

Matchday, Salford City v County, Vertu Trophy.

I gave this one a miss as there wasn’t enough interest to run a Flyer to the game and it gave Janice and me the chance of a couple of days in Wales. A good decision as it turned out, I suffered the utterly dispiriting spectacle via Sky Sports+, ninety minutes of my life I’m never getting back.

Here’s how County lined up:

On the face of it, a reasonable blend of fringe players and those who didn’t play too many minutes on Saturday, so I was quite optimistic until the game actually started. Salford pressed well early on and forced a good save from Corey Addai. Owen Moxon showed well at first and had a superb long range shot saved. We were prone to fooling about at the back, attempting short passes to men under pressure and we were lucky to get away with it on a couple of occasions. Corey O’Keeffe rattled the bar with a fierce shot which could have changed matters if it gone in. As it was, a slip by the normally secure Joe Olowu let Salford in and Austerfield put them ahead on thirty-three minutes. Nathan Lowe almost equalised just before half time but we went into the break 1-0 down.

Odin Bailey came on for the second half, replacing Corey Edwards. Lowe suffered a cut head in the first minute and spent a while on the sidelines being bandaged up. Salford were two up after fifty-two minutes when O’Keeffe brought the always-dangerous Woodburn down in the box and Bird scored from the spot. Joe Astles replaced the anonymous Lewis Fiorini on sixty-four minutes and County pressed well for a few minutes thereafter. Any hopes of a revival were quelled on sixty-nine minutes when some statuesque defending allowed City to notch a third. Bailey got us a consolation goal on eighty-four minutes after good work down the left by O’Keeffe but by then the die was cast.

One bright spot is that despite that pitiful effort tonight, we remain in second place in the group, which would get us through to the knock-out phase. We’ll probably have to beat Wigan in the last group game to stay there though, and we haven’t been brilliant at doing that so far this season.

If you need something tasty to purge the taste of tonight’s fiasco, the club’s highlights of Saturday’s victory over Huddersfield are available here:

Today’s tune is synonymous with a visit to the Moor Lane, The Pogues’ version of Ewan MacColl’s hymn to Salford, “Dirty Old Town”:

Wednesday, 8^th October 2025.

Last night’s performance was disappointing, but the worst take of the week came from a bloke on the County supporters Facebook page, who thinks we should send Tyler Onyango back to Everton on the strength of it. It makes one wonder what tablets some of our fans are on.

We normally get a team photo right at the start of the season but I’ve only just seen this one, from Mike Petch. Note that Lewis Bate has a remedial boot on, which sums our injury situation up very nicely.

The club’s Community Trust recently invited Ben Hinchliffe to address guests at their sporting memories programme, The 90 Minute Club. Ben talked to the group about his time in football and his journey with Stockport County.

This week’s main pod from TSBW was chaired by Russ Johnson with regular co-pilot Waggie. The lineup was completed by debut fan guest Ryan Bradley who produced a strong set of answers to the first timer’s questions. Their analysis of the County week went like this:

• Salford (A): It started with a poor first half, characterised by a number of missed chances, and went downhill from there. As with previous games of this sort, none of the fringe players staked any sort of claim for a start on Saturday.
• Who should start against Blackpool?: With Tyler Onyango suspended and Beno Andrésson away with Iceland U21, who should replace them on Saturday? Nathan Lowe was deemed a definite starter, the other berth probably goes to Jayden Fevrier although Corey O’Keeffe might also be a contender.
• Huddersfield (A): Was that this season’s sliding doors game? Winning against a team who hadn’t previously lost at home this season and with only ten men for most of the second half is no mean feat and must add to the team’s growing confidence.
• The Railway End roof: Despite Waggie’s suggestion that we should adopt a retractable design so County fans could be sheltered and away supporters exposed to the elements, everyone agreed that it’s long overdue and should help with the atmosphere.
• Blackpool (H): All three predicted a win, with scores ranging from 1-0 to 4-0. Any of those will do me!
• Random Shit Of The Week: This week’s game required the contestants to construct the ideal County player by specifying the best left foot, right foot, heading ability, range of passing and football intelligence. Apparently it was against the rules to just say “Ollie Norwood” to everything…

Well worth a watch, get it here:

Inspired by this week’s RSOTW, today’s tune is “Living Doll” by Cliff Richard and The Young Ones:

Thursday, 9^th October 2025.

I see that Kira Rai, the Peterborough player who was subjected to online racist abuse (see Sunday’s entry) scored a hat-trick in five minutes this week. That’s the best way to reply.

Now then County fans, your podcast needs YOUR vote!

We’ve been nominated for Best Podcast at the Football Content Awards 2025 and you can help by voting for us.

👉 Head to https://footballcontentawards.com/voting/

👉 Choose The Scarf Bergara Wore under “Best Podcast”

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Let’s bring it home for County and content created for the fans by the fans.

TSBW’s match preview pod this week featured Steve Bardsley talking to John Aspinall of the Seasiders Podcast. The highlights of the discussion were as follows:

• Steve Bruce: He wasn’t the most popular choice as manager but things looked promising at first. He had a well-drilled squad to work with and changed to a more attractive style. Personal tragedy meant that he was away for five games and things tailed off towards the end of last season. They played on the break home and away, the players looked disinterested and poorly coached. The mood around the fanbase has improved since he was sacked after the defeat by Wimbledon.
• Fraser Horsfall: His signing on decent money and a four-year contract typified the approach under Bruce. He scored an own goal on his debut, was out with a knock for a while and hasn’t been picked since. It’s thought he might have spoken out of turn to Bruce.
• Expectations for the season: Given the money spent, playoffs at least but a poor start sees them second bottom at the moment.
• Next manager: Richie Wellans would be a popular choice but he’d take some prising away from Orient. Ian Evert, Matt Bloomfield and Damien Duff have also been rumoured.
• Tactics and formation: The way they set up on Saturday will depend entirely on which players are fit. As is common these days, they have an injured list as long as your arm.
• Predictions: John hopes for a 1-1 draw but expects a 2-1 defeat.

John was an excellent guest and I’d recommend watching the pod:

Today’s tune, in honour of Saturday’s visitors, is “The Beach and the Sea” by Reverend and the Makers:

Friday 10^th October 2025.

The “temporary” roof over the Railway End has been going up this week, it looks a similar arrangement to Barrow and Crawley. It’ll be a change to hear complaints about visibility rather than about getting rained on.

It seems Saturday’s win at Huddersfield, as well as tarnishing the home team’s big day as sole owners of the ground, was Kyle Wootton’s 150^th appearance for County. It’s astonishing that some people still don’t understand what he brings to the team, he’s been a massive signing for us and is a key part of the spine of the team.

Here’s what I’m expecting as a team for tomorrow. Chally seems settled on his best eleven but the choice this week is complicated by Tyler Onyango’s suspension and Beno Andrésson’s absence with Iceland U21s. I expect Nathan Lowe to play up front with Kyle Wootton but the left wingback berth is more complicated. I’ve gone for Corey O’Keeffe, despite his predilection for giving penalties away, a skill he demonstrated again against Salford on Tuesday. Jayden Fevrier is the other option but I think his value lies as a substitute coming on to torment tiring defenders.

County Ladies’ manager, Steve O’Hara, has been nominated for the September FA WNL Manager of the Month award. It covers Tiers 3 and 4 of the women’s game and would be a great feather in the cap of Steve and the team if we could get it over the line. The link to vote is here and it’s straightforward enough, you don’t need to enter any details, just two clicks is all it takes. You need to be careful not to vote more than once via different devices, that would be underhand and skew the results unfairly.

forms.office.com/e/5TW9J1EchY

Apropos of nothing, today’s tune is “I Wanna Get You In My Tent” by the perfectly sane Bonzo Dog Doodah Band:

See you all at Edgeley Park!

Animo et fide.