County v Worksop
The road to Wembley begins with a visit from a Nottinghamshire outfit in the seventh tier
Saturday 4 November 2023
NEXT HOME GAME: Worksop – Today, 3pm
NEXT AWAY GAME: Swindon – Saturday 11 November, 3pm
Dear County fans, Stopfordians, and any Worksop supporters joining us today, a very warm welcome to your Saturday edition of The Scarf My Father Wore.
Eight of County’s eleven FA Cup campaigns as a non-league outfit were brought to an end by a fellow club from outside the 92. Southport, Rushall Olympic, Chester, AFC Fylde, Woking, FC United, Barnet and York City all ended our dreams of getting to Wembley – although it’s fair to say you’re getting nowhere near the Wembley final in May if you’re losing at home to Rushall fucking Olympic in the third qualifying round in October.
It’s 16 years since County last slipped on a non-league FA Cup banana skin as a Football League club, which is what the Tigers from Nottinghamshire will be aiming to do this afternoon. The last occasion was in 2007-08, a season which ultimately ended in play-off final glory, but not before we’d suffered a humiliating Thursday night in Staines.
Ian Brown and Jonathan Baker are both predicting we’ll be in the hat for round two, but both think Worksop will have their moment on the scoreboard this afternoon, and one of them thinks we’re going to need a replay at Sandy Lane first before we progress.
Today’s edition is sponsored by Crown Point Glass. A big thank you to Phil and Chris.
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: 38.66 miles
Total steps so far: 67,558
Total raised so far: £910
Total completed streets so far: 15 (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 County’s FA Cup tie against a side 75 places further down the pyramid.
Ian Brown, hedgegrower
County 2 Worksop 2
How many changes would you make for today’s game?
My traditional, knee-jerk response when this type of question is posed upon the visit of a team from humbler climbs to Edgeley Park is to respect the opposition and the competition and play as strong a team as you can.
I see no reason to not follow that course on Saturday because the Tigers will have motivation to spare so we will need to be similarly blessed if another ignominious defeat against little regarded minnows is not to be added to the many in our history.
That said, there is probably an argument for making three or four changes to the starting line-up so I would give hard-earned rests to Southam-Hales, Horsfall and Pye, replacing them with Richardson, Byrne and Touray respectively.
In addition, if all is going well, I would take Croasdale off at half-time bringing Camps on in his place and do similar with Madden for Wootton, also replacing Bailey with Hippolyte or Popoola if he’s available to us.
That’s showing a suitable level of respect in my view without unduly compromising our effectiveness, but it still does not guarantee us a place in round two. In fact I can see Town getting a 2-2 draw, before County win a rain sodden replay!
Jonathan Baker aka Geordie Hatter, The County Away Day Show
County 3 Worksop 1
Just exactly how slippy is the banana skin lying ahead of us this afternoon?
This is a most scholarly enquiry Des, and one I will address with due scientific rigour, by way of my patent formula for the calculation of Knockout Opponent Underdog Slipperiness – comprised of three equally-weighted elements as follows:
Element One: Gulf in Class
With the fixture seeing a team of part-timers from the obscure reaches of the seventh tier travelling to face the runaway leaders of League Two, the disparity in sporting stature is about as wide as the FA Cup first round (proper) can be reasonably expected to deliver. A banana-skin rating, therefore, at the maximum level: 3 out of 3.
Element Two: National Profile of the Tie
With no less than five “David versus Goliath” encounters having been selected for TV coverage over the course of the weekend, our own match-up with a potentially tricky minnow seems to have flown – at least thus far into the news cycle – under the radar, and I doubt whether your average armchair supporter is even aware it’s taking place. Having said that, in the event Challinor’s men fail to prevail, I’m quite certain that the exploits of the plucky underdogs from South Yorkshire will feature prominently within the evening’s radio round-ups. Accordingly, I’m awarding a middling banana-skin rating here: 2 out of 3.
Element Three: Realistic Prospect of a Giant-Killing
Clearly like the rest of the County Nation I’ve got a giant-sized dog in the race here, making this factor the most difficult to evaluate objectively, but I’ll give it a go. My tremulous heart insists that the game pits eleven against eleven, ranks as our lowly opposition’s cup final, and that backed by a sizeable travelling support, the Tigers could just serve us up a fatally ferile feline bite in the backside. My more rational head, however, refuses to countenance such intemperately catastrophic rumination, and insists the prospect of any result other than a comprehensive home win remains vanishingly remote. In keeping with the scientific discipline of the present exercise, I’m going to side with my head, and award the lowest banana-skin rating available: 1 out of 3.
Taking the full dataset together then, the Slipperiness Rating for our fixture this weekend can be arrived at by calculating the average score across the elements: 2 out of the maximum 3 banana-skins. Dave Challinor’s odds-on favourites are accordingly advised to exercise sensible levels of caution underfoot – but on balance, I do consider we’ll come to the fray with more than enough wherewithal about us to avoid the sort of embarrassing head-over-heels predicament that would see us meriting column inches on the back pages of the Sunday morning rags.
3-1 to the Hatters, then, and into the hat for round two. Bring it on!
Today’s sponsor: Crown Point Glass
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Photo of the day
Edgeley Park, Stockport
This photo brings back some wonderful nostalgic FA Cup memories for your editor. I’m instantly transported back to January 1994, sprinting onto the pitch as an ecstatic 9-year-old the minute those Railway End gates burst open, following County’s memorable 2-1 victory over Premier League QPR.
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
Manc Elvis at The Crown Inn (SK6). 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.
SK1 / SK2 / SK3 / SK4 / SK5 / SK6 / SK7 / SK8 / SK9 / SK10 / SK11 / SK12 / SK13 / SK14 / SK15 / SK16 / SK17 / SK22 / SK23
Memories of Staines v County in 2007
“It was called off on the Tuesday which I didn’t go to. Was rearranged for the Thursday and I went with my mate on the free coach. Coming out of the ground everyone wanted Gannon gone. We went to Bradford on the Saturday and drew 1-1, with David Poole’s equaliser in injury time, and never looked back after that.”
“I bought Sky Sports for that game. Rained off. Then the actual game… get the ball in the box. Stop with the shit corners!”
“I remember being in The Armoury for that one. They did a pre-match bit with Hard-Fi, who gave us a potted history of Staines, which included a plane crash on the outskirts of the town. I remember standing up and shouting, “Outskirts? OUTSKIRTS? We’ll see your fucking plane crash and raise you with IN THE TOWN CENTRE!”
Bunch of fives
5️⃣ FA Cup banana skins
1) Stevenage Borough 2 County 1 (2003-04)
2) Caernarfon Town 1 County 0 (1986-87)
3) Telford United 3 County 0 (1983-84)
4) County 0 Telford United 1 (1985-86)
5) Staines Town 1 County 1 (2007-08) Lost 4-3 on penalties
5️⃣ people born in Worksop
1) England manager Graham Taylor
2) Notts County keeper Darren Ward
3) Iron Maiden lead singer Bruce Dickinson
4) Golfer Mark Foster
5) CBeebies presenter Sarah-Jane Honeywell
5️⃣ memorable County FA Cup goals
1) Helliwell’s header at Everton
2) Preecey’s volley against QPR
3) Ash Palmer’s equaliser at home to Bolton
4) Len White’s opener at Anfield
5) Jarkko’s late winner at Crewe
5️⃣ Huel flavours
1) Chocolate
2) Vanilla
3) Banana
4) Berry
5) Salted Caramel
5️⃣ fireworks
1) Sparkler
2) Roman candle
3) Catherine wheel
4) Rocket
5) Fountain
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