County 1 AFC Wimbledon 0
Plus! 14 photos from an EGGcellent Easter Monday (I’m not even apologising… we’re going up!)
Tuesday 2 April 2024
NEXT HOME GAME: Morecambe – Saturday 13 April, 3pm
NEXT AWAY GAME: Sutton – Saturday 6 April, 3pm
If you’d like to write an article for The Scarf My Father Wore, share a few snippets or photos, or advertise your business, please email thescarfmyfatherwore@substack.com.
Dear County fans, Stopfordians, Wombles, and anyone else from The Football Family joining us today, a very warm welcome to your Tuesday edition of The Scarf My Father Wore.
Barrow lost yesterday. So did Crewe. MK Dons conceded a stoppage-time equaliser. I’m sure lots of long-suffering County fans will be refusing to count chickens just yet, but Odin Bailey’s stunning 85th minute winner at the Cheadle End sent promotion vibes rippling around all four sides of Edgeley Park.
The permutations are fairly simple at this stage. Regardless of what anyone else does, three wins from our last six games will take us into League One. If we win at Sutton and Colchester, three points at home to Morecambe on Saturday 13 April will secure our place in the third tier next season. If MK Dons even draw one of their last four games, and Barrow lose one of their last six, or draw a couple, County would only need two victories. Potentially, we could secure promotion at Colchester a week today, but I reckon it’ll be Morecambe at home.
Jack Street (of The Beavers fame) and Lee Willett join us today to reflect on yesterday’s game at Edgeley Park.
Our first live event of 2024 is taking place this month. ‘Flynny at the Finger’ – an evening with County legend Mike Flynn – is at The Fingerpost on Wednesday 17 April. Start time 7.30pm. If you’d like to join us, please email thescarfmyfatherwore@substack.com. Tickets are £10 (or £5 for paid subscribers plus anyone who’s written an article for The Scarf My Father Wore). That includes a full colour souvenir programme, and even a little bit of stand-up comedy!
Today’s edition is sponsored by The Mortgage Mill. A big thank you to James. If you’re looking to buy your first house at the moment, or you’d like to find out more information on the recent announcement that first-time buyers can now get on the property ladder with a £5,000 deposit, email james@themortgagemill.co.uk.
Finally, I’m currently walking every street in Stockport to raise money for mental health charity Mentell. If you’d like to make a donation to help me reach my target, please click here.
Total distance so far: 136.36 miles
Total steps so far: 217,174
Total raised so far: £1,666
Total completed streets so far: 271 (Click here for the full list, which includes reports and photos from every day of the walk.)
Further information on the walk can be found by clicking here.
Des Junior
✍️ Monday’s match in one word
Jack: Relieved.
Lee: Disappointing.
🤔 Pre-match thoughts
Jack: I was quite tense. We're in the business end of the season here, big time. Asking for two wins over the Easter weekend is always a big ask, and our excellent win at Forest Green made me anxious about getting a result here. Wimbledon are also pushing for the play-offs so I thought it would be very cagey from them, and we've struggled to break down teams who set up like that.
Lee: Needed to win. We’ve been hovering around 7th all season without doing enough to nail it down. We’ve dropped a few points of late, have lost momentum, and have handed the initiative to others. To my mind – even though you’re top – we needed to make a statement yesterday that we were serious about trying to make the play-offs.
🧐 Post-match thoughts
Jack: Ecstatic. Not the best performance but two big game moments went our way: the penalty miss and then the touch of class from Odin. It felt like a huge result, especially with other teams losing or drawing below us.
Lee: We didn’t win. We didn’t make the statement.
🔵 Verdict on County
Jack: We had to grind it out, didn't we? Not the most fluent, and I was really worried that we couldn't break them down (until that one moment of class). We didn't move the ball as quickly as I'd have liked, which made us look quite ponderous at times. But it was solid, we dug in and got over the line – that's what matters at this stage of the season.
Lee: You did what you needed to do. I also think you played better and deserved to win. I think your form has been a little up and down of late, but you ground out the result. We all know that teams looking to be competitive and challenge for promotion need to do that. You were on top for the second half in particular, and deserved the win because of that. The winner came late, but that doesn’t matter: you found a way.
⚪️ Verdict on AFC Wimbledon
Jack: I thought they defended really well, and looked to maximise their set pieces. There was a lot of moaning around me about the gamesmanship / shithousery, but I don't have an issue with that. They'd set up to get a draw and see what they could get on the break, and on another day they could have come away with some precious points.
Lee: Disappointing. If you can’t score, you won’t win football matches no matter how well you play.
🎩 Top Hatter
Jack: Sponsors gave it to Ibby Touray and I've got no issue with that, he was excellent. I've grumbled about him all season but he’s coming good now and it's great to see.
Lee: Lemon. Wish we’d been able to keep him.
🎩 Top Womble
Jack: I'd say Joe Lewis really. I know that seems a bit obvious with him being ex-County but I thought he defended really well. He looked shit scared when Tanto came on, though.
Lee: Jack Currie (left-back). Club legend. Love a bit of Currie.
👂 Atmosphere
Jack: Well there was a clear block between us and the Wimbledon fans, so the atmosphere on the Pop Side wasn't as heightened as it has been in the past. Even my line of "best player Wimbledon has ever seen is Fred Perry, and he's from fucking Portwood" didn't work cos the Dons fans were so far away. But it was a good atmosphere, and it was great to hear the County fans really get behind the team in the last 20 minutes (even from the Cheadle End!).
Lee: You lot were decent. Lots of singing and nice and noisy. I think the Cheadle End always looks good and sounds good. We were off form in our end, to my mind, with what was a relatively low turnout for us. While a top-end clash should have attracted more of us, the trains were all over the place yesterday and very pricey as a result. League Two is an expensive league for us Londoners (with 15 clubs north of Brum) so there’s a lot of costly away travel, and we’re back up for Tranmere in three weeks. I’ve been to Edgeley Park a few times. Always enjoy watching football there (apart from yesterday… and last season, while I’m at it). Love the ground (apart from getting wet in the away end last season). Decent pie in the away end, though. Decent stewards in the away end, too (which, as I’m sure many will feel, can be a rare thing as an away fan). The Armoury is also a good pub for away fans to visit.
🙏 Hopes for the rest of the season
Jack: We have to get promotion from here. But just saying that makes me very, very nervous. I'd love us to sew up the title before Wrexham. Promotion would be superb but we haven’t won a Football League title since 1967.
Lee: That we realise what could have been – and fix it for next season. Results-wise, life hasn’t been easy for us Dons fans since we got back in the league. Since we last had what most fans would see as a good season – 2015-16, when we got promoted out of League Two – we’ve finished 15th, 18th, 20th, 20th, 19th, 23rd (relegated) and 21st (when we did pretty much everything to get relegated). At the end of last season, many fans said a comfortable mid-table finish this time around would be a happy place, especially given that recent history. However, when we made some really good signings over the summer, when we started well, and when some key players were really hitting good form early on (Tilley, Al Hamadi, and Lemon up top, Short Shorts [Lewis] and Jonno becoming a rock at the back, and Bass keeping clean sheet after clean sheet between the sticks), many of us started to believe that maybe we could have a proper go at play-offs. Yet, we’ve been beset by a perennial problem for us: not enough strikers in the squad, and not enough goals in the squad. We’ve not scored in 15 of our 42 league games to date (35%); of the other 27 games, in 12 of them we’ve scored only one goal; we also haven’t scored more than two goals in a game since December. If we’d have had more striking and attacking options, the situation might’ve been different this season. We’ve also found a challenge in striking the formational and tactical balance between being solid at the back (15 clean sheets to date) and adding more creativity. And then there’s missed penalties… I think we’ve missed five in the league (out of the eight we’ve had). In four of those games, given the results, had the pens gone in we’d in theory be seven points better off.
😀 Best part of the day
Jack: The moment that shot from Odin hit the back of the net. Beautiful.
Lee: Beers on the train on the way up.
😡 Worst part of the day
Jack: When we win and no one else in the top six does? Nothing!
Lee: From when you scored until I got home. Good luck for the rest of the season. When you came to ours earlier on, you gave us a proper runaround and were well worth your win. You’re the only team to have done that (there’s one other result that we just don’t pay any attention to), so on that basis alone I’ve had you down as the best side in the league. I’ve always admired how you’ve built success. Moreover, like us, you seem really embedded locally. Like us you make some cracking noise. I’ll miss ‘Stocky away’ next season (we aren’t going to be in the play-offs if we have zero shots on target in games), but I do hope you go up and can make a good fist of staying up. Hope it won’t be too long before we see you back at Plough Lane.
The British Library receives a copy of every single book published in the UK. In the same fashion, Des Junior believes a detailed record of every County game should be preserved for the history books. So here’s the full story of our 1-0 victory at home to AFC Wimbledon on Monday 1 April 2024, as told from his County-related WhatsApp groups…
6.23am: I lost my virginity 22 years ago today.
6.24am: (County won 2-1 at home to Watford.)
7.20am: DO WE NEED TO KNOW THAT?
8.22am: It was a big day.
9.20am: Bet that wasn’t what she said.
3.35pm: Penalty to Wimbledon.
3.36pm: Missed!
4.03pm: Mediocrity probably best sums up that entire first half. We really need to step up in the second half.
4.46pm: BAILEY! WHAT A STRIKE!!
4.48pm: Get in there! Sounds like Touray is continuing his improved form with an assist too!
5.04pm: To be honest, barring a totally unreal collapse, I think all of the top three are going up now. Can’t see any of the others being consistent enough.
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An Easter Monday visit from the Wombles
Photo of the day
It’s unbelievable to think that County could be travelling to the likes of Sheffield Wednesday and Huddersfield Town in League One next season, when our days in the National League North still feel like ten minutes ago sometimes. The good times are certainly here at the moment, partly because many of us kept the club going through the bad times, such as the magnificent Help the Hatters volunteers, pictured here on the back of the 2013-14 yearbook.
Today in SK
🎬 Cinema
Two films at The Savoy Cinema (SK4) today. Kung Fu Panda 4 (PG) at 3.45pm, followed by Bob Marley: One Love (12A) at 6pm. Click here for tickets.
🤣 Comedy
Daliso Chaponda, who came third on Britain’s Got Talent in 2017, is at Bask (SK1) tonight. David Eagle, Brayden Kerr, Gilly Gorry and Heidi Clark are also on the latest Bask in Laughter line-up, with Trevor Lynch hosting. 7pm. Tickets £8.
🍺 Food and drink
The Nelson Tavern (SK1) have a great range of offers throughout the week, including £4.50 for drinks off the Doubles Bar, a comprehensive range of shots for £2, and 3 for £6 on Jägerbombs.
If you’re in Stockport today, pop into The Petersgate Tap (SK1) for a couple of pints.
Pie Meal Deal at The Friary (SK3). Any pie or pudding and chips with peas, curry or gravy. Plus tea or coffee. £7.95. (Greenhalgh’s Pies £1 extra.)
Random County fan of the day #85 – Will Robinson!
One final thing before you go… if you’d like a spring clean for your car, carpets, house, oven or even your windows, get in touch with our brilliant bunch of sponsors!
🎨 Art & Gifts: Kate O’Brien Art
🧱 Builders Merchant: MKM Manchester South
🧽 Car Valeting: Rub A Dubz Detailing Ltd
🧼 Carpet Cleaning: A Star Clean Ltd
🏠 Carpets & Flooring: Kingsway Carpets & Rugs Ltd
🐈 Cat Flaps: That Cat Flap Company Ltd
👶 Child Health: The Sleep Nanny
🏠 Chimney Sweep: Three Shires Chimney Services
🧹 Cleaning: Beespoke Cleaning
🚙 Coatings: Colourtone Ltd
🗣 Counselling: Time and Space Counselling
🚘 Driving School: CFN School of Motoring
💷 Financial Services: The Mortgage Mill
🔥 Fire Protection: Radial Fire And Security Limited
🍏 Greengrocers: Waterhouse’s Quality Food
🛁 Grout Refresh & Recolour: GroutGleam Stockport
💇♀️ Hairdressing: C West Hairstylist
💻 IT Services: Bridge Computer Services
🪚 Joinery: SAW Contracts Ltd
👨🍳 Kitchen Appliances: SW Appliances
🌳 Landscaping: PR Landscapes
🔑 Locksmith: APL Locksmiths Ltd
🧤 Oven Cleaning: That Oven Girl
🖌 Painter & Decorator: BGM Decorators
🚑 Personal Injury: Parkers Solicitors Ltd
📸 Photography: Holly Dwyer Photography
🎹 Piano Tutor: Sophie Grace Piano and Keyboard Tuition
🧱 Plastering: DT Plastering Services and Damp Proofing Specialists
🚰 Plumber: GTG Gary the Gasman
🦶 Podiatry: SK Podiatry
📕 Publishing: Victor Publishing
🤳 Social Media Management: Believe Media
☀️ Solar Panels: Malbern Solar Ltd
👨💼 Solicitors: B.J. McKenna & Co
⚽️ Sports Coaching: UK Sports Coaching Ltd
🪨 Stonemason: LM Stone Creative
🪵 Timber Supplies: Portwood Timber Division of Illingworth Ingham (Manchester) Ltd
☀️ Travel Agent: PTF Travel Ltd
⚖️ Weight Loss: Slimming World Reddish & Bredbury with Shlean
🪟 Window Cleaner: R ‘N’ B Window Cleaning
🧘♀️ Yoga: Greenshoots Yoga