Go Go Go County!
A treat for older readers today as John Snellgrove’s series of nostalgic memories from the 60s reaches our glorious Fourth Division title-winning season
Sunday 14 July 2024
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STOCKPORT COUNTY PREDICTION GAME 2024-25: Predict County’s top scorer, final league position, cup performances etc. £10 to enter. 40% of the pot to the winner, 30% to second, 20% to third, and 10% to Mentell. If you’d like to enter, drop us a message or an email.
On the day England could lift a major trophy, today’s edition of The Scarf My Father Wore landing in your inbox features County winning silverware back in 1967. It’s Part 5 of John Snellgrove’s fantastic series looking back at County in the 1960s. If you’ve missed any of John’s previous articles, be sure to catch up by clicking on the links below.
Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4
Today’s edition is sponsored by SAW Contracts Ltd. A big thank you to Steve. Give him a call on 07801 490294 or email sawcontracts@gmail.com if you’re looking for a qualified joiner in the Stockport area.
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: 176.31 miles
Total steps so far: 284,130
Total raised so far: £1,931
Total completed streets so far: 347 (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
I wonder how many of us are left who have witnessed both of County’s Fourth Division championship winning seasons. A few dozen, maybe even upwards of 100. No need to write in, just curious. I feel I had to enclose the car stickers as they just seemed to convey the mood of the time – maybe a season too early, maybe not. They’re showing their age, a bit like me some days, and a couple of words wouldn’t fit on my scanner! (“Night” and “County” if you’re struggling.)
How optimistic were we? I’m not really sure, especially after the disappointment of the previous season. Still, a draw away at Barrow on the opening day followed by a 3-1 home win over York was certainly a promising start. (We’ll ignore the other game in August, a 1-0 defeat at Crewe in the League Cup, as that continued the total failure of the previous four seasons as I had yet to see County progress past the first round.)
Four straight wins followed. A defeat at Rochdale threatened to derail the season but two quick wins followed and hopefully normal service was resumed.
Perhaps this might be an opportune time to give our younger readers some idea of what it was like to follow football in those days. Now everything is instant, with mobile phones and Sky Sports. It certainly wasn’t instant for us. Information came from the Stockport Express, the Advertiser or the Manchester Evening News. And of course, never to be forgotten, the sheer excitement of standing outside the local paper shop on a Saturday night awaiting the arrival of the Football Pink.
It was amazing how they could get that day’s results and reports printed in Manchester and delivered to our local newsagents in Cheadle Hulme by 6pm. It must be added that most games started at 3pm and had finished by 4.45pm. Very little of this time added on, and if by some mischance a game hadn’t finished the result or latest score was in faint print in the margin.
I must add that County and other local teams got decent coverage even in the dailies. Full match reports and occasional photos unlike the total obsession with the Premier League that is our diet today.
I even had a job interview with the Stockport Express to work as a journalist. The new Len Noad – who reported on County for many years – I hoped. No working up the ranks for me, straight into being a sports reporter. Nothing like youthful optimism. The interview went well and if I got my A levels I was to get back to them. Only a few months later, reality struck when I was visiting relatives in Widnes. Reading the local paper with reports of funerals and weddings, listing who was wearing what and who was there, I decided that wasn’t for me!
Our FA Cup run never got off the starting blocks with another thing that has gone forever: the second replay. Two draws against Darlington in the first round led to another replay at Elland Road and a 4-2 defeat.
Prior to the first game with Darlington, a much fonder memory is Tommy Henderson’s winning goal against Tranmere. A fairly dour game, as they often were, was brightened up when County got a free-kick towards the Cheadle End. Like the fisherman’s tale the distance grows as the years pass. Must have been at least 40 yards (though probably nearer 25). He ran up and unleashed an absolute piledriver into the net. Game over, 1-0 to County. I don’t recall at that time ever having seen anything like that before.
County didn’t score many – in fact, 12 1-0 wins that season. A rock solid defence – Matt Woods, Eddie Stuart, Peter Jones and Billy Haydock – with the young but brilliant Ken Mulhearn in goal saw to that.
We had plenty of forwards. Frank Lord (before moving to Blackburn), Derek Kevan, the two Keiths – Allen and East – but goals were at a premium for the most part. There was confidence that once in front it would stay that way and it usually did.
Looking back at a programme from November I was surprised how tight it was at the top, with three teams tied on 20 points and only four points between the top 12, but by Christmas things were definitely very different. County were four points clear of Southport with a game in hand and seven ahead of Wrexham in 3rd. Amazingly, only 12 goals conceded in 21 games.
Two games against Chester over the festive season both ended 1-1, but a sign of how County were viewed can be seen from the programme for the Chester home game. For those of less advanced years asking who Pat Phoenix and Peter Adamson are, they were both major characters on Coronation Street. A time when County memorabilia appeared in the Rovers Return.
There were blips along the way. My favourite opposition (not!) beat us 4-0 with a certain Jim Fryatt, later of this parish, scoring two. Yes, it was the beloved Southport. February was not a good month at all, with no victories in four games.
I can remember being particularly upset, even bordering on angry, after we lost 2-1 at home to Brentford at the beginning of March. Brentford were the only team to do the double over us, and it was also our first home defeat that season. Why I should have been so annoyed I don’t really know but I was. Maybe I could see the chasing pack catching up, or like all supporters at moments like this, you wonder where the next win is coming from.
Hope was on the horizon. The signing of a goalscorer called Bert Lister.
Now Bert and I had already met. Next door but one to our house was a journalist called Peter Slingsby who wrote for the Manchester Evening Chronicle and in the Manchester United programme. I fondly remember him inviting me round to have tea and sandwiches with a certain Denis Law and his fiancée. Wow! What a moment and such a lovely person. I brought all my photographs of him, at least 20, and he signed them all. Whatever happened to that book I will never know.
My other moment of fame was waiting for Peter Slingsby outside the main entrance at Old Trafford after a game and being chased back to his car by people demanding my autograph. Obviously they had never seen me play.
Anyway back to Bert Lister, an earlier Luke Beckett type goalscoring forward. Standing outside my house he shouted across to me: “A fellow rat catcher.” I looked perplexed as I had no idea what he meant. “Roman Catholic,” he laughed.
Bert’s 11 goals in 16 games sealed our promotion, including a hat-trick against Southend. I managed three away games at the end of the season: Port Vale (a 2-0 win, suspended due to a hailstorm, no doubt a result for the side column of the Football Pink), Halifax (another 1-0 win), and finally a 3-0 defeat at Tranmere but by then I don’t think we were too worried.
We’d already been crowned champions before the final game against Lincoln, which was top v bottom. Surely a chance to equal the record points achieved in Division Four. Little could have prepared us for what we witnessed. Four goals scored but astonishingly five conceded. The disbelief was all around but put down to over-celebrating. Team forgiven.
Interesting that all four teams promoted that season (us, Southport, Barrow and Tranmere) were from the North West, and all four have had spells in non-league. Even more amazing is that only five of those 24 teams have not dropped out of the Football League since then – Crewe, Brentford, Bradford, Port Vale and Barnsley the fortunate few.
Finally… I can’t leave this off. A post-season friendly against Manchester City, and a 1-0 win. Look at the team City turned out. If you can’t read my writing, blame my teachers I think!
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Photo of the day
Boundary Park, Oldham
An adorable little County fan in the away end at Oldham yesterday. (We’ll have a write-up from Boundary Park on The Scarf My Father Wore tomorrow.)
Today in SK
🎬 Cinema
Two films at The Savoy Cinema (SK4) today. Inside Out 2 (U) at 1pm and 3.15pm, followed by A Quiet Place Day One (15) at 5.30pm. Click here for tickets.
💿 DJ
Bask (SK1) will have DJs on from 5pm, potentially playing until late if we’re all in a good mood…!
⚽️ England v Spain
There’s loads of great places to watch England across Stockport tonight (listed below). If you’re planning on watching the game in the town centre, you can reserve a table at Thread (SK1). Simply drop them a message. All tables will be reserved until 7pm. If you aren’t in by then your table will be made available for walk-ins.
🍺 Food and drink
If you’re simply in the mood for a couple of pints today, pop along to one of our featured venues such as AMP (SK1), The Nelson Tavern (SK1), The Petersgate Tap (SK1), The Crown (SK2), The Dog & Partridge (SK2), The Armoury (SK3), Reddish Working Men’s Club (SK5), The Crown Inn (SK6), The Marple Tavern (SK6), The Railway (SK6), The Shady Oak (SK7), The Three Tunnes (SK7), The Cross Keys (SK8), The Railway (SK9), Flute & Firkin (SK12) or The Friendship (SK13).
🎤 Live music
Kirk McElhinney at The Steelworks (SK6). 3pm.
100 random grounds that County have played at
#65 – Edgar Street, Hereford
Last visit: April 2019. County ended up clinching the National League North title three weeks later, but dropped a couple of points in this one. Goals from Adam Thomas and Nyal Bell had Jim Gannon’s men 2-0 up at the break, but Hereford scored twice in the second half, including a last minute equaliser.
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This was my first season as a County fan, although I only saw a few games because I was reliant on my father to take me and I was too young to really appreciate it all.
Looking at City's lineup for that friendly with Bell and Book, I can't help wishing they'd had a player called Candle as well.
Brilliant article: it was a time I remember oh so well........