County 1 Newport 0
The thoughts of two County fans, from either side of the Pop Side divide, plus 17 photos from Saturday afternoon
Sunday 10 March 2024
NEXT HOME GAME: MK Dons – Saturday 23 March, 5.15pm
NEXT AWAY GAME: Salford – Thursday 14 March, 8pm
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, Newport supporters, and anyone else from The Football Family joining us today, a very warm welcome to your Sunday edition of The Scarf My Father Wore. A special shoutout also to all the County (and non-County) mums out there on Mother’s Day – hope you’re all being treated to a nice meal, or at least a box of Milk Tray!
For the first time since 13 February (over seven hours in footballing terms) we’ve got a goal to talk about on The Scarf My Father Wore today! Just. Actually, that should be a bit bigger… JUST.
In fact…
JUST!
That’s the biggest font Substack will allow me to use, but even that doesn’t do justice to the relief felt inside Edgeley Park yesterday afternoon, when Paddy Madden smashed home a 93rd minute winner at the Railway End. Ecstasy for Mozzer on the Pop Side, but agony for the away fans on the other side of the segregation, such as Ollie Allen.
Our first live event of 2024 is taking place next month. ‘Flynny at the Finger’ – an evening with County legend Mike Flynn – is at The Fingerpost on Wednesday 17 April. Start time 7.30pm. Over half the tickets have already been sold. 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 SW Appliances and UK Sports Coaching. A big thank you to both Steve and Matt.
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: £1,641
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
✍️ Saturday’s match in one word
Mozzer: Eeek!
Ollie: Gut-wrenching.
🤔 Pre-match thoughts
Mozzer: Having steadied the defensive ship after the Crewe and Tranmere horrorshows, I was hoping we could just have a straightforward win – two or three goals, no dramas, get the points and move on.
Ollie: I was very much prepared for a tricky game given where Stockport are in the league and our inconsistent form of late.
🧐 Post-match thoughts
Mozzer: On another day that would have happened. However, you could sense tension building in the stands the longer it went on and obviously Paddy’s penalty miss got people thinking it wasn’t going to happen whatever we did. It’s often said that it’s not about what you deserve from a game, but what you take. In the end, we took what we deserved – that was a thoroughly satisfying win in its own way. Hard work, nervous and tense, yes, but the team deserves credit for grabbing the three points when I suspect most in the ground had got to a stage where they were just hoping Newport wouldn’t scab one from a deflected shot or something!
Ollie: Both sides looked fairly average. It seemed that Stockport left their shooting boots at home but had plenty of perseverance and tenacity. A well taken goal at the end but Newport arguably deserved a point.
🔵 Verdict on County
Mozzer: We weren’t brilliant, but for all the frustration at times we largely controlled the game after a scrappy first 10-15 minutes. I was surprised at some of our subs, but we found a way in the end. Powell’s removal, in particular, surprised me. I thought to that point he was our best hope of unlocking a stubborn Newport side. I was also surprised we hadn’t swapped Hippo and Lemon over much earlier. Should we have created (even more) chances than we did with the possession and territory we had? Possibly, but I maintain we still did enough there to be satisfied with the day’s work, albeit with room for improvement. Hopefully, the manner of victory gives everyone a boost now.
Ollie: Given where Stockport are in the league, I was expecting a more clinical performance. Plenty of chances but very few converted. On a different day, that could've been 0-0 or 8-0 in Stockport's favour.
⚪️ Verdict on Newport
Mozzer: Let’s start with the moaning: timewasting from Minute One. Urgh. Their keeper was a prime exponent but there was plenty of it going on around the pitch. And their No.7 (Evans) was the sort of player I struggle with – someone quite happy to engage in the dark arts, but a whiney gobshite with it. If you want to play that game, fine, but don’t cry like a baby when it doesn’t work for you. A stronger ref would have booked him just for his mouth. Anyway… credit where it is due in terms of the performance. Shithousery aside, they came for a point and set up to do that. They made life difficult and were hoping for that bit of luck or a set piece to do the job at the other end. I know teams like that frustrate some County fans, but putting up a couple of banks of players is perfectly legitimate and it’s up to us to deal with it. They came to work hard and scrap for a point and very nearly managed it.
Ollie: A masterclass in defending (provided you stopped watching in the 90th minute). Overran in the midfield and limited to relatively scrappy chances.
🎩 Top Hatter
Mozzer: After an hour, I’d have said Powell. And I’ve no real complaints about Pye getting MotM from the sponsors - he looked solid back in there and helped us bring it out with purpose at times. But come on: Paddy put a shift in, as usual, and had a couple of decent chances, but most importantly he bounced back from the penalty miss to grab the winner in time added on for time wasted. All Hail Ming.
Ollie: Paddy Madden. Really fought to get on the end of every ball and against any other keeper, would've probably had three or four.
⚪️ Top Exile
Mozzer: He properly ground my gears with his timewasting from the first chance he got, but Townsend between the sticks was their best player by some way. The penalty save might have been from one of those ‘good height for a keeper’ penalties, but you’ve still got to make it and he was responsible for two or three outstanding saves in addition to it – the one to prevent an OG was particularly good (annoying!).
Ollie: Hands down Nick Townsend. I can't count on both hands the amount of games he's kept us in this season, but that performance was a level above exceptional.
👂 Atmosphere
Mozzer: Not bad on the Pop Side. They did alright noise-wise, given their numbers, although it was a bit of the formulaic variety. We were much more focused on ourselves than getting into too much of a war of words with them, although the penalty seemed to turn both sets of fans towards each other a bit more. Still, it was all just a lead up to the explosion of joy and relief when The Emperor delivered.
Ollie: We're going through a rise in travelling fans so the atmosphere in the away end is slowly improving. A fairly interesting away end in terms of layout but a very nice ground.
🙏 Hopes for the rest of the season
Mozzer: Top Three remains the hope – anything more is bonus time, anything less a disappointment. It’s now about how we carry that ‘Madden moment’ into future games. We’ve been frustrating in recent weeks for different reasons but we’re still in a good position, so it’s about finding a decent groove and getting the job done.
Ollie: In August, it was anything above 23rd. I think most Newport fans are ready to accept we're in that limbo of ‘not going up, not going down’. A few less injuries would be a nice change, though.
😀 Best part of the day
Mozzer: If that volley wasn’t the best part of your day, you had an exceptional Saturday. (I did really enjoy going for a meal with my family before the game, as a pre-Mother’s Day thing, but y’know, sorry Mum – that was lovely; Paddy’s goal was… something different to lovely.)
Ollie: The staff and stewards around the ground were all lovely to chat to. It makes all the difference when you get to have a pleasant conversation with the people you see as you head into the ground.
😡 Worst part of the day
Mozzer: Another day gone and no General Election date announced. We need another 1997: a County promotion and a hated, abject Tory government dumped on its sorry arse, both occurring within a few days of each other.
Ollie: The 93rd minute, for obvious reasons.
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 Newport County on Saturday 9 March 2024, as told from his County-related WhatsApp groups…
4.00pm: I can’t tell from the radio commentary whether we’re knocking on the door and a bit unlucky or it’s really bitty and generally not very good?
4.02pm: The former.
4.05pm: A bit of both. We need to step up the pace but they are the definition of anti-football and the ref's happy to let them timewaste.
4.32pm: Penalty to County.
4.32pm: Saved.
4.33pm: That was predictable.
4.52pm: Madden!!!
4.58pm: Jesus. This is doing my heart no good at all.
12.05am: In my pissed up state at home, looking at the league, I believe that if we beat MK Dons in two weeks time, we'll go up. There, I've said it. Good night.
2.12am: I feel terribly pissed.
CHILL OUT! (with this brand new fridge freezer)
I don’t want to be accused of slander by a man with significantly more money than me, but I reckon Jeff Bezos has never set foot inside Edgeley Park. On that basis alone, don’t buy your kitchen appliances on Amazon. Get them from SW Appliances instead, a business owned by County fan Steve Gibbons.
Whether you visit Steve’s showroom on Castle Street, or purchase online, SW Appliances have hundreds of products in stock. You won’t get a personal service from Bezos if you buy a kettle off him, but you will if you do business with Steve. He’s the appliance version of a train spotter and what he doesn’t know about appliances simply isn’t worth knowing. (That’s not an insult by the way, it’s on his website.)
Perhaps you’re in need of a new fridge freezer at the moment. How about the one in the picture? With a total combined food storage of 280L, this Zanussi ZBB28441SV integrated fridge freezer certainly has the capacity to store family-sized quantities of food. It’s divided 70/30 between fridge and freezer, and features a low-frost freezer and a low electricity consumption as shown by its A+ energy rating. And it’s currently on sale for £399.99, reduced from £499.99.
Visit swappliances.co.uk for further details.
Could your child be the next Paddy Madden?!
Nearly 9,000 people lifted the roof off Edgeley Park yesterday when Paddy Madden scored a dramatic injury time winner for County. You never know, that could be your little one grabbing the headlines in the future.
Get your kids into training now. It might be a bit early to start feeding them raw eggs for breakfast, or forcing them to run up and down the steps in Vernon Park, but one thing they’d definitely enjoy is the weekly UK Tots Football Fundamentals session, run by UK Sports Coaching every Monday, perfect for kids from 18 months to 3.5 years.
To book a space for a child, or simply for more information, give Matt a call on 07891 205763 or email info@uksportscoaching.co.uk.
Newport at home
Photo of the day
Edgeley Park, Stockport
Congratulations to County Ladies, who beat FC United 3-0 this afternoon in front of a record attendance at Edgeley Park: 737. Before the game, County’s players lined up on the hallowed turf with their mums. Proper wholesome County content for you on Mother’s Day.
Today in SK
🎬 Cinema
One film at The Savoy Cinema (SK4) today. Dune: Part II (12A) at 7.30pm. Click here for tickets.
🍺 Food and drink
If you’re in Stockport today, pop into The Petersgate Tap (SK1) for a pint or two. Open till 9pm.
🎶 Free jukebox
The Nelson Tavern (SK1). 3pm - 6pm.
Random County fan of the day #67 – Peter Baldwin!
One final thing before you go… if you’re in need of any of these products or services this month, get in touch with our brilliant bunch of sponsors!
🎨 Art & Gifts: Kate O’Brien Art
💈 Barber: STUDIO26 Haircare
🪟 Blinds & Shutters: Bauhaus Blinds & Shutters
📚 Bookkeeping: Eleven Accounts Services Ltd
🧱 Builders Merchant: MKM Manchester South
🍰 Cake Maker: Claire Green Bespoke Cakes and Catering
🧽 Car Valeting: Rub A Dubz Detailing Ltd
🧼 Carpet Cleaning: Pro Clean Carpet Services
🏠 Carpets & Flooring: Kingsway Carpets & Rugs Ltd
🐈⬛ Cat Sitting: The Crazy Cat Ladies Cheshire
👶 Child Health: The Sleep Nanny
🤹♀️ Children’s Entertainment: Stockport Hero Hire
🧹 Cleaning: Beespoke Cleaning
🚙 Coatings: Colourtone Ltd
🗣 Counselling: Time and Space Counselling
🦮 Dog Training: Paws High Peak Dog Training
🚘 Driving School: CFN School of Motoring
💷 Financial Services: The Mortgage Mill
🔥 Fire Protection: Radial Fire And Security Limited
🍸 Gin: Hatters Gin
🛁 Grout Refresh & Recolour: GroutGleam Stockport
💇♀️ Hairdressing: C West Hairstylist
🛠 Home Improvements: Menzies Develop & Build
💻 IT Services: Bridge Computer Services
🪚 Joinery: SAW Contracts Ltd
👨🍳 Kitchen Appliances: SW Appliances
🔑 Locksmith: APL Locksmiths Ltd
🚐 Minibus Hire: Westfield Minibuses
🧤 Oven Cleaning: That Oven Girl
🖌 Painter & Decorator: BGM Decorators
🎈 Party Supplies: Step Into Fun Events
🚑 Personal Injury: Parkers Solicitors Ltd
📸 Photography: Holly Dwyer Photography
🎹 Piano Tutor: Sophie Grace Piano and Keyboard Tuition
🚰 Plumber: GTG Gary the Gasman
🦶 Podiatry: SK Podiatry
📕 Publishing: Victor Publishing
🛖 Roofing: ADM Roofing Services Ltd
☀️ Solar Panels: Malbern Solar Ltd
👨💼 Solicitors: B.J. McKenna & Co
⚽️ Sports Coaching: UK Sports Coaching Ltd
🪨 Stonemason: LM Stone Creative
🖊 Tattooist: Heatons Tattoo Club
🪵 Timber Supplies: Portwood Timber Division of Illingworth Ingham (Manchester) Ltd
☀️ Travel Agent: PTF Travel Ltd
👨💻 Web Design: SITEZO
⚖️ Weight Loss: Slimming World Reddish & Bredbury with Shlean
🪟 Window Cleaner: R ‘N’ B Window Cleaning
🏋️♀️ Women’s Fitness: Sophie Pavey Fitness
🧘♀️ Yoga: Greenshoots Yoga