County v Colchester
Can the Stockport Hatters equal the Luton Hatters’ League Two record of 12 consecutive victories?
Saturday 18 November 2023
Dear County fans, Stopfordians, and any Colchester supporters currently reading this on a coach or a train, a very warm welcome to your Saturday edition of The Scarf My Father Wore.
“Probably the least appealing fixture of the season,” said Ben Walker yesterday.
Even with the likes of Harrogate and Crawley in League Two, I’d be inclined to agree with County’s shirt supremo. Whenever I sit down to write anything about Colchester, nothing gets my creative juices flowing. I don’t hold any ill feeling towards the Essex club, it’s just that nothing overly exciting has ever happened against them in my lifetime. From the age of 5 to 17, we didn’t play them at all, so I don’t have any childhood Colchester memories. And until last season, we’d only occupied the same division on five occasions during my adult years, with a record of zero wins, two draws and eight defeats. Layer Road was a shithole, and I haven’t been to their new place.
History was made last season, however, as County’s first victory back in the Football League was against Colchester, with further headlines to be written this afternoon if Dave Challinor’s men can pick up another three points, which would equal Luton’s record of 12 consecutive victories in League Two. Jonathan Baker, Ian Brown, Andrew Barlow and even today’s Colchester representative Callum all think history will indeed be made by 5pm.
Today’s edition is sponsored by Colourtone. As always, a big thank you to Paul.
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: 46.68 miles
Total steps so far: 83,302
Total raised so far: £987
Total completed streets so far: 24 (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
Des Junior loves writing about County. But he can never be arsed doing match previews. They’re a bit dull, aren’t they? Paddy Madden’s out for two games with an ingrown toenail…blah blah blah…tomorrow’s referee has handed out more cards than Moonpig…blah blah blah…County haven’t won at Birmingham since 1672.
Fortunately, he has a number of fellow County content creators to call upon. Here’s their thoughts, general chit-chat and score predictions, ahead of this afternoon’s visit from a Colchester side unbeaten in four games in League Two.
Jonathan Baker aka Geordie Hatter, The County Away Day Show
County 3 Colchester 1
With Sarcevic confirmed to be out for a few weeks, we’re once again talking about injuries this season. What’s the worst one you’ve ever had?
That's a great question, Des!
The worst injury I've ever endured was entirely self-inflicted, and occurred midway through the 1992-93 season (I mean, it wasn't a football injury or anything, but like most of us I map my lifetime in 'years' spanning from August to July, and this era of my early twenties is no exception).
It was a Saturday night after a spring afternoon watching Kevin Keegan's glorious team of black-and-white-clad entertainers take another step forward on their stately procession towards the Second Division championship. As was our post-match ritual, my good friend and I had spent our evening among the trendy nightspots of Jesmond (a suburb of Newcastle) steadily putting away approximately nine pints of strong lager – downing the last one in something of a hurry, as we suddenly realised it was well past chucking-out time and we had three minutes to make the last Metro back into town. In sprinting desperation to climb aboard the departing tram before its sliding door slammed shut, I stumbled over the underground bottom step, landing face-first on the platform, before crawling the last few yards to make it into the midnight carriage with just a couple of seconds to spare.
I'd felt some slight soreness on the way home, but it was only as I stepped over the threshold to see my dad gazing in shock at my sorry state that I realised my left ankle had swollen to the approximate size of a football. I was packed into the back of his car and transported back the way I'd just come to the Royal Victoria Hospital, where, as the alcoholic anaesthetic wore off and the excruciating pain began to throb, a serious ligament strain was diagnosed.
The next morning I was due to play an 11-a-side game (so this is a football injury story after all, sort of…) and such was my youthful enthusiasm to make it onto the rented AstroTurf that I'd actually set the alarm to wake early from my drunken slumber and put myself through an impromptu 'late fitness test', taking the form of a short limp to the kettle. The magic of the overnight ice pack having reduced the girth of my lower leg to no more than that of a grapefruit, I was ready to declare myself ready for action, until one more aghast look from my dad informed me my game was very much up.
The ankle eventually healed – enough for me to play 5-a-side through my thirties, as long as nobody minded that I would at unpredictable intervals collapse in agony as a result of no contact whatsoever, a fate that can still befall me to this day should I place too much weight on the weakened joint while running for a bus (or for that matter, just walking down the street). All slightly inconvenient, and when it happens, still as painful as hell.
I don't mind really though, because I get to explain that it's “just my old football injury giving me a bit of jip”, which – let's face it – is the nearest I'm going to get to the life of a professional. If I had my time again, I'd down the same nine pints and sign up for that tumble down the steps. As the great cavalier Keegan himself might have put it: nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Click here to listen to Geordie Hatter’s injury list playlist!
Ian Brown, hedgegrower
County 3 Colchester 1
How are you feeling this week, with County losing for the first time since August?
First off – a confession!
Having purchased a ticket for Tuesday’s game I unfortunately had to duck the occasion, thus avoiding the apparent calamity that a 2-0 defeat at the hands of Bolton was. I say “apparent” because County were always going to lose some time and for it to be on the wettest of Tuesday evenings against a side from a division higher than us takes a lot of the sting out of the reverse.
Bolton appeared to take the occasion seriously lining up with only six changes from the team that had won on Saturday, and it seems they gave a seriously good account of themselves.
I saw the social media posts depicting the Pop Side 80% full of Lancastrians and it was perfectly obvious that the travelling Bolton fans rather wanted to win as well. “Good on ‘em,” I say, but we’re in the knockout stages anyway, and we “Always Win Away” so will probably see them at Wembley!
Meanwhile our powder is being kept dry for the visit of Colchester to Edgeley Park and I see us coming away 3-1 winners from today’s encounter.
Andrew Barlow, Hatters Matters
County 3 Colchester 1
With Sarcevic injured would you find someone else and stick with the 4-4-2 diamond or revert back to 5-3-2 / 3-5-2 today?
I think the 4-4-2 diamond formation has worked brilliantly over the last couple of months with the players we have had available – as soon as we switched to that formation everything seemed to click on the pitch so I hope we don't change it back because of one player’s absence.
As Sarcevic is expected to be out for a few weeks I’d actually like to see either Nick Powell get a run in the team or perhaps Paddy Madden could come in at the tip of the diamond if we do keep the formation the same. Powell's best position in our team would be in that number 10 role operating behind the front two but Madden could also be an option as whenever he drops a little deeper he seems to have that craft to ping balls around and we know his workrate is second to none. The only downside of starting Madden with both Olaofe and Wootton on the pitch would be a lack of replacement strikers on the bench if we need to make changes in the game.
Based on our own form, position and home advantage I can't see anything other than a County win this afternoon. 3-1.
Give your car a lick of paint
Granted, Stockport used to be a little rough around the edges. But the town’s getting a good old lick of paint these days, with fancy new offices, apartments, bars and restaurants springing up. You can’t be driving up and down the A6 in a tatty car with chipped paintwork, so give your car a nice lick of paint too. Colourtone is your go-to company for that. They’ve been servicing the automotive and industrial markets in Cheshire and Greater Manchester for decades, and carry an extensive range of car paint and industrial paints.
Visit colourtone.com for further details.
An interview with Callum from Eagle Eyed U’s
County could record a 12th consecutive victory this afternoon, which would equal the League Two record currently held by Luton. How do Colchester stop that?
I’m sure a number of teams have faced County with different strategies this season so you might be better placed to answer that one. We beat Notts County and drew with Mansfield by going for it and being brave. We also came close to getting something at Crewe having dominated most of the game. However, there's every chance that can backfire and we concede a few, which almost happened against Notts. We're also under a new manager since those games so we may approach it differently.
Who have been your best players this season and who’s disappointed?
Our best players have probably been Arthur Read and Jayden Fevrier. Read is a hard-working technical central midfielder who’s been one of our main sources of creativity this season with four goals and four assists. Likewise, Fevrier has been dangerous and unpredictable going forward, playing as a wing-back on either side. When he gets the ball, no one can guess his next move.
I don't think anyone has been particularly awful to say they've been disappointing. Greenidge, who will likely play at left wing-back, is a good defender, but he’s not a wing-back at all. You might have some joy down that side.
You’re exactly 7 points off the play-offs and 7 points off relegation. Which is more likely this season?
Tough question. League Two is looking very strong at the top but we're definitely good enough to avoid a relegation battle, let alone actually going down. Might have to see a few more games of us under Matty Etherington before I can confidently answer that. For now I’d say relegation is more likely as we haven’t seen the aftermath of the "new manager bounce" yet and we’ve seen good squads under inexperienced coaches go on terrible runs in recent seasons. A mid-table finish looks inevitable.
Do you miss Layer Road?
I don't remember too much due my to age, but I did go there a number of times. Definitely miss it for obvious reasons, but understand it was time to move for the benefit of the club. As decent and modern as our new stadium is, it does lack that bit of character and sense of community as it's a fair distance away from the city centre and areas where fans live.
Who are Colchester’s main rivals?
Southend are definitely our fiercest rivals. There's also considerable dislike for Ipswich, Norwich and Wycombe. Yes, that’s Wycombe from the other side of London. Bit of a long story.
Is anyone in Essex actually arsed about football or is it all cocktails and spray tans?
I think so. A few of us certainly are on a Saturday at 3pm anyway!
What’s the fan culture like at Colchester?
On the whole it's been quite negative for a number of years unfortunately. There's certainly a consensus that we’re underachieving for a club of our size and history and should be competing at the top of League Two. Fans are just desperate for a good season whatever the style of football. It’s been 17 years since our last promotion and we’ve only finished in the play-offs once during that time.
Best and worst memories as a Colchester fan?
Worst would be a close call between the relegation from League One in 2015-16 having conceded 99 goals, or any number of the awful games we've seen in the last few years that have seen us fighting at the bottom of League Two. Home defeats in the last two years to Barrow (0-2) and Sutton (1-3) come to mind and have set in the reality of our situation.
On the positive side of things, the Carabao Cup run in 2019-20 where we beat Crystal Palace and Spurs on penalties is certainly the best of the lot since our promotion from League One in 2005-06 and subsequent 10th place finish in the Championship.
What do you think of Stockport County – A) the club B) the manager C) the fans?
Taking away the fact you’re another northern club which is a bloody long journey for an away day, you’re one of those clubs I was glad to see return to the EFL recently given your size and history.
I have a lot of admiration for Dave Challinor as he's been successful and won promotion at every club he's been at, which is quite rare in modern football.
Your fans brought a good amount last season considering the distance so respect for that.
Prediction for today?
Depends which U's turn up. We're good going forward and there haven't been too many games where we've been comfortably beaten, particularly against the top sides, but I have to be realistic. I'm going for 2-1 to County.
DJ Des
He got knocked down, but he got up again. After sharing his amusing tale with us today (sorry mate, shouldn’t laugh, but it was your own fault after nine pints…) DJ Des is feeling a bit of Chumbawamba for Geordie Hatter.
Would you like DJ Des to play a song for your favourite County player, or a friend or family member? Email thescarfmyfatherwore@substack.com with your requests/shoutouts!
Today in SK
🍟 Food and drink
Lite bite meal deal at The Friary (SK3). Cod or haddock, served with chips, and a side of peas, curry or gravy. Plus tea or coffee. £9.95. 11.30am - 6.30pm.
🎤 Karaoke
Lee at The Nelson Tavern (SK1). 8pm - 1am.
🎵 Live music
The Aim (pictured above) at The Crown Inn (SK6). A lively and energetic Motown trio. 9pm.
The Scarf My Father Wore works closely with venues on a daily basis to bring you the most comprehensive guide to all of the best offers and events taking place across the whole SK region. Click on the links below for full details of everything taking place in your area over the next few weeks.
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