Friday 29 March 2024
NEXT HOME GAME: Wimbledon – Monday 1 April, 3pm
NEXT AWAY GAME: Forest Green – Today, 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, Forest Green supporters, and anyone else from The Football Family joining us today, a very warm welcome to your Good Friday edition of The Scarf My Father Wore.
County fans are off to The New Lawn this afternoon, a football ground that only serves vegan food. I can’t be there unfortunately as I’m still doing some filming in Liverpool, but I have tried to join my County comrades by giving myself a taste of the away end with my Travelodge breakfast this morning – a slightly unorthodox vegan pairing I must admit.
“You eat them beans cold out of the can?” said one of my mates in a WhatsApp group.
“Never ceases to amaze,” said another.
I’m going to do the same when County play Wimbledon on Monday by chomping on a couple of Wombles for lunch. I’ve heard Great Uncle Bulgaria tastes great on a butty.
Ian Brown, Ed Chadwick and Jonathan Baker are with us today, all backing County to pick up three points against the team currently rooted to the bottom of League Two.
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. 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 PR Landscapes, joining The Scarf My Father Wore family for the first time! A big thank you to Patrick. If you’re looking to transform your garden for this summer, give him a call on 07793 084808 or email prlandscapes22@gmail.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: 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
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, as County look to turn Good Friday into Great Friday with three more promotion points.
Ian Brown, hedgegrower
Forest Green 1 County 3
A 5-0 win against our nearest promotion rivals in front of the Sky Sports cameras on a Saturday night. This is surely a promotion season now isn’t it?
That was a statement win Des – one full of what’s required to see our season end happily! It was a truly awesome performance from County as a very good MK team was kept at bay and suitably frustrated for the first 30 minutes by a string of saves from Ben Hinchliffe that kept us in it when the going was at its toughest.
To emerge from that chastening opening and then win so handsomely going nap in the process was beyond impressive. All five goals had the mark of class about them and it’s even more satisfying that the goals were shared by five players.
We have often been plagued by the parrot cries from keyboard warriors – “Where are the goals going to come from?” – and the answer is writ large: “From everywhere!”
Does this mean we’re up already? Of course not, but it underlines our credentials as we hunt that top place. Any one of three will do of course but I see no reason why we cannot confound the pundits, in true County fashion, by taking the League Two title.
Meanwhile, desperately seeking a correct forecast, I give you Forest Green 1 County 3.
Ed Chadwick, Stockport County Supporters Co-operative
Forest Green 0 County 2
What’s the best vegan food you’ve ever had?
It would have to be something I've knocked up at home because I don't really see the point of going out to eat meat-free. I'm equally happy with a homemade veg curry or chilli as I am eating a meat version.
I know plenty of football fans get riled by the fact that all of the food at FGR is vegan but I simply don't get it. Nobody is forced to buy food or drink during the two hours they're inside a ground and 3pm games don't intersect with any meal times.
Dale Vince is free to push his ecological agenda wherever he sees fit. The way he dresses, on the other hand, suggests to me that he might be a bit of a wally. His running of the club in the last couple of years seems to back that up. You invest all that money getting your side into the league and then appoint a player with no managerial experience when the club is in a relegation battle?
To be fair, Steve Cotterill looks a good appointment but he's surely arrived too late to save their league status. We all know what successive relegations from League One and League Two does to a club...
We've had some positive news about returning players this week and I think we're going to carry the momentum of the MK game into our forthcoming fixtures. Six points over Easter would put us very close to promotion.
Jonathan Baker aka Geordie Hatter, The County Away Day Show
Forest Green 0 County 2
What would be your top five songs for a vegan playlist?
5) “Meat Is Murder” by The Smiths
Difficult to start anywhere else but here. Even if this is approximately my 62nd favourite Morrissey/Marr track, it pretty much stands as the official pop anthem to the plant-based lifestyle, and with a release date of 1985, it can claim to have anticipated the present flesh-eschewing zeitgeist by approximately 40 years. I’m listening to it now actually and I’d forgotten how the opening bars feature a cow moo-ing, to the backdrop of rusty-sounding abbatoir machinery. Liltingly melodic and absolutely terrifying at the same time. I’m going to turn it off before I have actual nightmares, and proceed to…
4) “Vegetarian Restaurant” by Aberfeldy
If you’ve ever fallen so unrequitedly in love with the boy/girl behind your local café counter that you’ve been rendered incapable of the basic levels of speech necessary to complete an everyday sandwich transaction (and let’s face it, which of us hasn’t?) then this jauntily melancholic number from self-styled ‘Edinburgh indie-chamber pop quintet’ Aberfeldy should be just your cup of tea. That would be your 17th cup of tea this week already by the way, and the next time you go up to the counter, you’re definitely going to manage to hold back on the frankly unseemly stammering, sweating and blushing long enough to ask him/her what time they come off their shift, and if they’d maybe like to join you for a walk around the park. I’m wishing you the best of luck, I really am. Perhaps you may gain wizadrous wooing-power from…
3) “Magic Onion” by The Lovely Eggs
The one thing we can probably all agree on regarding vegans is that they don’t massively go in for the consumption of eggs, so this one was nearly disqualified from the get-go, before being snuck back here into the middle of the playlist where (like a committedly-carnivorous County fan secreting a half-time pork pie through the Gloucestershire turnstiles under cover of their expansive greatcoat) we hope we might just get away with it. If apprehended by the eagle-eyed stewards we shall throw ourselves on their mercy, offering in defence surely the most immediately catchy pop song ever written in praise of an everyday allium. I mean it’s a small field admittedly, but The Lovely Eggs knock this one right out of the park, in my personal view. I’m almost as mesmerised as the first time I heard…
2) “Truck Train Tractor” by The Pastels
I was all set to go here for The Wurzels’ ‘I’ve Got a Brand New Combine Harvester and I’ll Give You the Key’, before remembering that if it’s minor pop classics celebrating agricultural transport options that are under consideration here, then we really have no business looking past this shimmeringly delightful three minutes of dreamy jangle-pop deliciousness from late 80s Caledonian indie legends The Pastels. Their lead singer Stephen Pastel, somewhat a hero of mine, is nowadays to be found working behind the counter of the independent vinyl store he owns in Glasgow’s East End. On a recent visit North of the Border I called in there under the pretence of rifling through a rack of Talulah Gosh twelve-inches, before buying one purely in order to engage him in a short conversation during which I intended to convey my undying admiration for his lifelong oeuvre. Needless to say, on arrival at the counter I immediately lost the power of speech, and was reduced to completing the purchase by way of a near-inaudible murmur. Clearly taking pity on me, Mr Pastel presented me with a free ‘Glasgow School of Art’ pin badge along with my receipt, as a memento of my visit. Talking of which august institution…
1) “Who Does Susan Think She Is” by The Just Joans
I’d be prepared to bet that contemporary West of Scotland coyly-angular-guitar-pop merchants The Just Joans spent a goodly proportion of their teen-hoods holed up in their respective bedrooms dreamily leafing through their collections of early Pastels seven-inches – and if proof be needed, I would respectfully direct you to this liltingly lyrical lament, recounting how the titular female pal has gone A Bit Weird (in a stereotypically studenty kind of way) Ever Since She Went To Art School. ‘Now she claims that she’s a vegan’, concludes the archly sardonic charge sheet, before lapsing into the plaintive repeated enquiry: ‘Are you still my best friend?’ The number packs in other words ample wherewithal to reduce you to tears of mirth then sorrow across its three-minute-three-second span, and for my money that represents as near a benchmark for pure songwriting genius as we’re going to come across in this or any Bank Holiday Weekend. Just breathtaking, and if I ever was to meet The Just Joans in my local café, I’d tell them so in no uncertain terms (not really… I’d hide behind my vegetarian sausage barm before sneaking out shyly into the street laden with leaden self-loathing, of course I would).
Today’s prediction: Forest Green Plant-Based Pioneers 0 Stockport County Pie-Propelled Promotion-Chasers 2.
Click here for Geordie Hatter’s vegan playlist!
A few words from our brand new sponsor PR Landscapes
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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
🪟 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
🏠 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
☀️ 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
👨💻 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