County 1 Leyton Orient 1

Nothing to separate Cheshire and Cockney after more than three and a half hours of football, with Orient winning on penalties to clinch their place at Wembley

May 16, 2025

Friday 16 May 2025

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Dear County fans, Stopfordians, Leyton Orient supporters, and anyone else from The Football Family joining us today, a very warm welcome to your Friday edition of The Scarf My Father Wore.

We battered Bolton; we collapsed at Cambridge. We won at Wycombe; we lost at Lincoln. We sang in the sunshine at Blackpool and Exeter; we crumbled in the cold at Birmingham and Huddersfield. It’s been another eventful season in the weird and wonderful world of Stockport County Football Club. After ten months, it’s time for our final match report of the campaign. Mark Smith has the final word on County’s first season back in League One, with Aynsley Taylor from The Leyton Orientear kindly writing another piece for us, despite being knackered from having very little sleep after getting back to London at 3 o’clock in the early hours of Thursday morning. I probably hit the sack at a similar time, after watching footage of Odin Bailey’s chance about 300 times, mentally trying to move the Railway End goalposts an inch or two every single time I replayed it. (It didn’t work.)

Today’s edition is sponsored by LM Stone Creative. A big thank you to Chris, who’s currently offering The Scarf My Father Wore readers a free matching chopping board and free templating on all full kitchen worktop orders.

All you have to do is quote “County Scarf” when you place an enquiry with Chris. Give him a call on 0161 312 6864 or email info@lmstonecreative.com.

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: 253.75 miles

Total steps so far: 418,084

Total raised so far: £2,312

Total completed streets so far: 474 (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

✍️ Wednesday’s match in one word

Mark: Unsatisfactory.

Aynsley: Intense.

🤔 Pre-match thoughts

Mark: Mixed. Excited, proud that we've come so far in a relatively short space of time. Not really nervous though, which I think comes from the fact we now seem on a path that is destined to take us up to the Championship, it's just a matter of when. And if I'm really dispassionate, I look back at the Carlisle Wembley game and think perhaps it was better for us in the long term that we didn't go up that season and instead built again and won the league. So yeah, all sorts of thoughts but no nerves because whether it would be this season or another season, we're in great shape. Then the game started and I was absolutely desperate for us to win.

Aynsley: How am I going to get home? In the end I hired a car to make sure I (and some friends) got home about two hours earlier than we would have had we got the free coaches that were laid on. Returning to London at 3am with work the next day was still exhausting but to be honest this whole issue did provide some distraction from the pre-match anxiety. Prepared for the worst, hoped for the best, ready to go the distance.

🧐 Post-match thoughts

Mark: Again, mixed. We should have won over two legs, given the awful error from the lino at theirs and the two chances we missed on Wednesday. But it wasn't to be. Could also look back at Wrexham and Northampton to name just two where we were on the wrong end of a refereeing howler. Writing this the day after, I feel a bit more relaxed and having done the vast majority home and away this season, I'm pleased my wallet will get the chance to rest and recover, and I can have a few weekends doing something totally different.

Aynsley: Astonished, relieved, overjoyed, exhausted. Before the first leg, Richie Wellens talked about how the victorious side would be the one that coped best with the momentum swings over both ties. As usual, he was spot on – even though the momentum favoured you for most of the 210 minutes, we capitalised better when it did swing in our direction.

🔵 Verdict on County

Mark: We looked nervy from the start, uncharacteristically so. Horsfall and Hills seemed a tiny bit unsure of themselves on the ball and that sort of stuff can spread. Won't have helped conceding so early. Also think Addai had his least assured performance in weeks. He's been excellent in the run-in but Wednesday felt like a return to the laid back, less assured version. Then the finishing… we had our chance and maybe in the fullness of time we'll look back and realise if we can't finish those types of chances or avoid conceding those types of goals, we're best having another 12 months refining our squad anyway. So yeah, no complaints about the effort but not our best performance.

Aynsley: Completely in character with what we saw in both our encounters at Brisbane Road this season. Big, powerful players who presented a real physical challenge, loved a set-piece, and played with a lot of conviction. Arguably the most difficult opponent we’ve faced all season – or maybe it just felt that way because there was so much at stake in these two games and we’ve seen you twice as much!

🔴 Verdict on Leyton Orient

Mark: Wellens is a good manager. They have some very good players, most of whom are on loan so it'll be interesting to see what they do in summer. They've been fortunate but to a degree they've deserved it too. And given their recent journey you've got to say fair f*cks.

Aynsley: Outstanding – but not because of any technical proficiency. We had the best of the game in the first half, carrying on from where we left off at the end of the first leg, but Challinor made sure that much less football got played in the second half, and it was the right approach for him to take. We were really clinging on at times but the self-belief, resilience and determination of our players in such a hostile environment (and the ref seemed to be giving you a lot of the decisions too) was really something to behold.

🎩 Top Hatter

Mark: Jack Diamond changed the game and gave us a different dimension, so him. Wonder whether he'd have made a difference in the first leg.

Aynsley: I’ll go for Norwood, as I think he epitomised your strengths on the day. Every dead ball was testing, he was the only player to score his penalty, and his experience was important in how he influenced the ref. Might have gone for Olaofe had he managed to bag a second – as he really should have done – because he gave our backline a torrid time and his goal was very sweetly taken. Horsfall again played like his name implies he should, an equine head on a stick that you looked for at every set-piece.

🅾️ Top O

Mark: Thought their keeper did well and Donley has impressed me over the season.

Aynsley: It’s got to be Josh Keeley really, which says a lot about how the game went. He had one uncharacteristically brainless moment in the second half when he picked up a backpass, but after that he was utterly flawless, making some really good saves, and successfully shit-housing a couple of your penalty takers. Special mention to Sean Clare, whose veganism fuelled our engine room for over two hours after surviving a horrific early challenge from Moxon, and who remained ice cold taking his pen in front of a seething Cheadle End. Jack Currie was superb too, but could only manage an hour.

👂 Atmosphere

Mark: I've seen people criticising different parts of the ground but there was a point when all four sides were singing in unison, on their feet, properly giving it some. That'll do for me. The Cheadle End was up for it from my position inside it. Probably the most since Bolton in the cup.

Aynsley: Magnificent, although the tension between your equaliser and Keeley’s penalty save was almost unbearable. Always enjoy a visit to Stockport – not just because we have a good record there, but it’s a proper stadium, a proper club, and a proper town. Sort out that fucking gantry though please.

🙏 Hopes for next season / Wembley

Mark: I'd like to see the squad get tidied up. We've got a few players who aren't good value for the type of money I believe we're paying them. No doubting the reasons they've been brought in, whether it be potential (Fiorini), sheer ability (Powell, Mingi) or personality and physicality (Hughes) but given the amount of money that is being invested, it'd be nice to see us hit the perfect point between continuity and regeneration.

Aynsley: That we win! The thousand of us that were at Edgeley Park know that Wembley won’t be anything like as good even if we do… Wembley is a different sort of affair entirely. If we do it then the real fun will be when we get back to Leyton – that’s if the fountains at Trafalgar Square don’t hold us up on the way. Charlton overcame us in March with a very similar MO to the one Challinor applies to you, so hopefully we’re getting better at dealing with it.

😀 Best part of the day

Mark: Obviously the goal. Pretty late on when things got increasingly desperate.

Aynsley: Trying to find a clever answer here, but will have to go for the obvious one: the shootout and its immediate aftermath. Having withstood your assault for over an hour and survived extra-time, the final (and decisive) momentum shift was in our favour, and you could feel it from the moment Tom James set the tone with the first penno.

😡 Worst part of the day

Mark: Seeing their fans go mental at that final penalty. Envious. Also seeing people leaving the game at the end of 90 minutes. What's wrong with these people? I've got real concerns about the type of people the club has targeted in the last couple of years with their version of 'matchday experience'. We need more die hards not a load of people who see us as a leisure pursuit.

Aynsley: That whole spell between your equaliser and Keeley saving from Diamond was just pure torture. And to be honest it hadn’t been much better since half-time. I think I must have aged another couple of years in that period, although maybe that experience made the moment of victory more electrifying than full-time after a 3-0 cakewalk could ever be.

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 1-1 draw at home to Leyton Orient (and subsequent penalty defeat) on Wednesday 14 May, as told from his County-related WhatsApp groups…

7.00pm: Unchanged 11.

7.47pm: Was feeling confident until about 10 minutes ago. Bag of nerves now!

7.48pm: Me too. I was actually thinking earlier about how calm I was to my surprise and thinking maybe I am just maturing and mellowing with age. I guess not after all!

8.04pm: Oh, fuck. That was terrible. Another comeback needed.

8.27pm: Moxon should be off. This is a right mess so far.

8.55pm: If we could finish we'd be at least level. These aren't all that. We need to prove it.

8.57pm: We're still in it despite being shite. That's something.

8.59pm: To be honest we don’t really look like a Championship side yet. Another year developing in League One would be no bad thing.

9.36pm: Get in! What a beautiful flick from Tanto.

9.37pm: I thought it was a deflection at first watch. But it wasn’t. It was deliberate and brilliant.

9.54pm: Fucking hell Tanto. He’s got to score that. You win the game with a calm head there.

10.15pm: Commentator just said it's quarter past ten here in Cheshire. I like this guy.

10.27pm: This isn’t going to be our night.

10.38pm: I hate penalties that much that I might just take the dog out instead. Sometimes I feel it’s better to be as oblivious as a pooch.

10.50pm: Should have really won that but what a season. So proud of my team. Blue forever. From National League North to League One play-offs. What a club.

10.53pm: It didn’t feel quite right from the moment we conceded that sloppy goal tonight. Just weren’t quite good enough. Fine margins innit. Super proud of the team though. And despite some gripes with the club, I do feel we’re heading in the right direction overall. When are the fixtures out?

11.07pm: Can't believe the choice of penalty takers. The best ball striker at the club, we are told, nowhere near a pen.

11.09pm: Such a weird game. We’ve not played well at all there and still been better than them. Two big chances on 90 and 120 minutes and not taken them.

11.11pm: If Bailey had scored at the very end it would have gone mad. Feel a bit cheated as we’re better than them. Over the two legs and over the season.

11.14pm: Still, hats off to the County management for putting us next to plenty of coked-up Orient fans. Really enjoyed them leaning across the netting at the end to tell me to fuck off.

11.21pm: Had a few tears at the end, but gotta say I’m proud of that season. Brilliant achievement. And that side is nowhere near ready for the Championship. Genuinely think next season will be ace.

11.22pm: Relegation it is then.

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Photo of the day

County’s record signing Ian Moore. With smoke coming out of his ears.

(An advert for Authentic Indian Foods in County’s programme in 2000-01.)

Today in SK

🍺 Food and drink

Bitter £2.30 a pint all night at The Cross Keys (SK8).

A number of venues are featured on The Scarf My Father Wore such as The Crown (SK2), The Dog & Partridge (SK2), The Steelworks (SK6), The Three Tunnes (SK7), Flute & Firkin (SK12) and The Ram’s Head (SK12). Support them this month by popping in for a few drinks and a bite to eat.

🎤 Karaoke

The Alexandra (SK3).

🎸 Live music

Grey Dogs at The Crown Inn (SK6). 9pm.

Chapter 16: The Day After Wembley

I’ll be honest, I really thought County would get to Wembley this month. I was going to run our Chat GPT adventure throughout May. We’re all sick of the play-offs now though, aren’t we. So I’ve told the robot on my phone to bring the story to an end, as we catch up with County fan Danny Hartley and his daughter Lucy back in Stockport the day after winning at Wembley. (Lucy’s a proper Stockport girl by the way, eating chips from Wembley the day after.)

It was raining again. Not heavy — just that kind of thin, sideways drizzle that seemed to settle over Stockport like an old habit. The bunting on Castle Street was damp and a little tangled, but it was still there. Blue and white triangles flapping quietly in the wind, like they couldn’t quite believe what they were celebrating.

Danny stood outside the bakery, two coffees in a tray, a paper bag of sausage rolls under his arm. Lucy was still asleep at home — or pretending to be, more likely — but he’d wanted the walk. He needed it. To come back down to earth, or maybe to realise that he didn’t need to.

He took the long way back. Down by the market. Past the square. Through the little back streets where people had started hanging scarves from their upstairs windows like flags. He passed a bloke hosing off his van who nodded and said, “What a day, eh?” and Danny just nodded back, smiling. It didn’t need more than that.

Edgeley Park came into view from the top of the road, grey against the greyer sky. Quiet now. No drums. No chants. Just puddles and pigeons. But still — even like this — it looked different. Or maybe he did.

He walked along the wall, tracing his hand over the rough bricks, still remembering the roar. Remembering that moment the whistle blew and everything exploded. He didn’t need to close his eyes to see it. It was in him now.

When he got back, Lucy was in the kitchen, wearing his old County shirt like a nightdress, staring at the highlights again on her phone.

“You’re obsessed,” he said, setting the bag down.

She shrugged. “Want to see if it still happened.”

Danny laughed. “I checked. Still 2-1. Still us.”

They ate at the table in the quiet — Lucy sipping coffee she still insisted she didn’t like, Danny halfway through his second roll before realising it was hers. She didn’t mind. She just smiled and reached for the last chip from yesterday, still left on the counter in its tray. Rock-hard. Cold. Glorious.

They didn’t say much. Didn’t need to. Something had shifted. Not just because of the win, but because of what it meant. Because of how it had made them feel. Together.

Danny looked over at her. “So. Season tickets again next year?”

She looked up, like it was a question with only one answer. “Obviously.”

He smiled. Not just because she said yes — but because she didn’t hesitate.

Outside, the town moved on. Shops opened. Buses splashed past. The moment faded, but not completely. People would forget the details — who scored, when, the weather, the kit — but they wouldn’t forget the feeling. The swell in the chest. The shout that cracked the sky. The certainty, just for once, that this — all of this — had been worth it.

Later, they’d go see Grandad. Take him the programme, the scarf. Tell him the whole thing all over again like he hadn’t been glued to the radio the entire time. And after that? Maybe the pub. Maybe a quiet one with the old lot, the ones who’d seen the bad years and kept singing anyway.

For now, though, Danny just looked out of the window. Same street. Same sky. Same rain.

And yet everything had changed.