I wanna talk tonight, about that team from Devon who play in red and white

Next stop on our 2024-25 season preview: Exeter

Jun 29, 2024

Saturday 29 June 2024

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Dear County fans, Stopfordians, Exeter supporters, and anyone else from The Football Family joining us today, a very warm welcome to your Saturday edition of The Scarf My Father Wore. (If you’re only just joining us today, for no reason at all, I’m somehow trying to use Oasis songs for every single one of our League One season previews!)

Jon from The Big Bank Theory podcast joins us today for an Exeter evaluation.

EURO 2024 – DAY 16

5pm: Switzerland v Italy 🇨🇭🇮🇹

8pm: Germany v Denmark 🇩🇪🇩🇰

Here’s a list of the best places to watch today’s games…

Bask (SK1). All the action on two 75” screens.

Crown (SK2). Buy a pint of Helles today and you’ll be in with a chance of winning 52 free pints! There’s also a special menu throughout the Euros.

Armoury (SK3).

Reddish Working Men’s Club (SK5). There’s four screens in the games room, a new projector in the lower games room, and a screen in the middle room where families and children can enjoy the match. Check out the Special Offer Wheel which will be offering a variety of great deals before, during and after each game.

Railway (SK6).

Marple Tavern (SK6). Food served at half-time such as burgers, hot dogs, pizza and chips.

Steelworks (SK6). Games shown downstairs (sound off) and upstairs (sound on).

Shady Oak (SK7). Food served during the games from the matchday menu. Pick up a loyalty card to receive a discount on certain drinks.

Three Tunnes (SK7). Buy a pint of Helles today and you’ll be in with a chance of winning 52 free pints! There’s also a special menu throughout the Euros.

Cross Keys (SK8). All pints £2.50 from 6pm till 9pm.

Railway (SK9). TVs in every room, and outside. Discounted doubles on spirits and 10% off four pint jugs.

Flute & Firkin (SK12). Call 01625 879181 to book a table, and quote “The Scarf My Father Wore” to receive 10% off your first round of drinks. (Not applicable for walk-ins.)

Friendship Inn (SK13). Five big screen TVs with surround sound, including one outside in the beer garden.

Today’s edition is sponsored by Radial Fire and Security and Waterhouse’s Quality Food. A big thank you to both Dan and Jennifer.

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: 158.42 miles

Total steps so far: 254,782

Total raised so far: £1,909

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

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Last win at our place: Saturday 16 October 1993, Division Two, 4-0

Last win at their place: Saturday 20 February 2010, League One, 1-0

Today’s Sky Bet title/promotion odds: Us – 20/1 7/1 Them – 50/1 16/1

Top story in the local news today: “21 defendants appear in Devon courts to face criminal charges”

I’m sorry to start with a political question, but as Rishi’s chucked a general election slap bang in pre-season, I feel we’ve got to mention it. Who are you voting for? If that’s too personal just give us a flavour of the current political feeling in Exeter? And which person at your football club do you think would make the best prime minister?

No worries! I'll be voting Green (the only time it’s acceptable to even mention that colour) but Exeter is a very Labour place. Keir Starmer has flaws but at least I actually believe that he’s a football supporter and enthusiast.

Best prime minister at City? You can’t deny Gary Caldwell’s dogged determination.

Nigel Farage has had cement and a milkshake chucked over him recently. If he was to do a lap of St James Park on a Saturday afternoon, what would Exeter fans be most likely to throw at him?

Pasties are too good a thing to throw at him. Self interested, vain and pompous masquerading as a voice for the working classes. His racism and string-pulling can absolutely do one.

If you had to compare the ownership and daily operations of your club to a political party, which would it be?

Well, the Trust are the owners of the club, and there's 4,000 of us as paid-up members, so it’s a social model already. Old school Labour, surely?

On and off the pitch, what do you think your club’s manifesto should say for the next 12 months?

We've come a really long way in the 20 years of Trust ownership to stabilise and build everything about the club, not just our facilities. We'd all love to see that stepped up with an ambition to reach the Championship for the first time.

Right, that’s enough political stuff. Next question. “We’re all from Stockport, who the fuck are you…?”

We’re the only team in Devon!

Which team do you most want to beat this season?

Is everyone answering Wrexham?! I'm assuming we all want to show them you can't just stroll through the leagues.

Which Exeter player is most likely to end up in League One’s team of the season?

Reece Cole is magnificent – an energetic and skilful central midfielder. I reckon he's the most likely to end up in the team of the season, before heading off to the Championship next year.

County haven’t been to Exeter in the league since February 2010. In just one paragraph, sum up everything that’s happened at your place since then.

Ah, you'll see some quite significant physical changes, such as a new away end. Actually, new-ish… we bought it off Barnet! But it has got a roof. And the actual new Adam Stansfield Stand has been open about three years I think. We remain the club least likely to sack our manager. Paul Tisdale eventually left after we lost the play-off final to Coventry in 2018. It was definitely the right time. We then had former club captain Matt Taylor who got us promoted automatically in 2022 with a squad that will live long in the memory. Taylor was snapped up soon after and we've now had Gary Caldwell for 18 months. He survived a run of 100 winless days last season to pull off a very respectable mid-table finish.

Exeter away. I think of a pretty nice cathedral city, a well-run fan-owned club, and a crappy away end. Do I need to educate myself further, or is that fairly accurate?

Yeah, that's the crux. The away end has improved at least! Exeter’s a big university city with lots of excellent beaches nearby.

What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Stockport County?

Big Kevin Francis, of course! I was also very pleased to see you get out of the Conference and now up to League One. A proper football club with a great set of supporters.

Rotherham play at the New York Stadium. NFL star Tom Brady is involved at Birmingham. Wrexham are plastered all over Netflix or Nickelodeon or whatever it is. League One has a bit of an American flavour this season. What’s the most American thing about Exeter?

If you don't know the story of Michael Jackson appearing at St James Park, it's well worth a Google! It felt insane then, and time hasn't softened that. Essentially, Uri Geller's son had a dream about Exeter City so started supporting us. Uri and Uri Jnr started attending and our corrupt ownership at the time invited Uri Snr onto the board. Even a non-superpowered human would have seen through the financial irregularities, so Uri saw it FAST! The club was thrown into turmoil and Uri felt bad (even though he helped) so he organised a fundraiser where David Blaine and Michael Jackson came and made an appearance at a ticketed fundraising event at the ground. Basically Jackson just waved and mumbled something about the England match that evening. So yeah, even after all this time, retelling it makes me wonder how it could possibly be real…!

I’ve been watching Football Cops on Channel 4 recently, featuring Sunderland fans kicking down barriers after the game at Coventry, and loads of little Crewe rapscallions playing up at home to Walsall. On a scale of 1 to 10, how naughty are Exeter fans these days, and how safe will our lot be when we make the trip to Devon this season?

Oh, very safe. The Big Bank gives it a right old go, but keeps it to the confines of the ground by and large.

Who or what needs to be top of Exeter’s shopping list before the new season starts in August?

We need a defensive midfielder and a goalkeeper.

What’s your early predictions in terms of the promotion and relegation places?

I expect Birmingham to fly back up. After losing in the play-offs the last couple of seasons, I’m sure Bolton will be determined to get automatic promotion.

Burton were terrible last year and will surely struggle again.

Click on the links below to read the other 2024-25 season previews we’ve published so far.

Birmingham / Bolton / Charlton / Crawley / Huddersfield / Leyton Orient / Lincoln / Rotherham / Wigan

Get in touch with Radial Fire and Security

As you know, we like to have a laugh and a joke at The Scarf My Father Wore, but something like fire protection is a serious matter, so we’ll get straight down to business. Radial Fire and Security are a leading commercial fire safety company with over 20 years’ experience, operating throughout the UK, specialising in the supply and service of a variety of different ranges of fire protection equipment. If you’re looking for cover, or simply to obtain some further information, give Dan a call today.

Visit radialfire.co.uk for further details.

A message from Jennifer, fourth generation at family business Waterhouse’s Quality Food

Hello The Scarf My Father Wore readers! It’s great to be featured here and have the opportunity to tell you a little bit about my family business in the heart of Cheadle Hulme.

We’ve been serving the area with fresh fruit and veg since 1921 when we started as a little corner shop. Over those 103 years, we’ve gone through many ups and downs, recessions, governments, global pandemics and much more. We’ve adapted and changed with the times, innovating and keeping up with what people need and want when it comes to fresh foods.

Our mission today is to encourage people to eat more fruit and veg for optimum health. We have the best quality and biggest range, from the local to the exotic.

We also have Prodjuice Juicery, our own in-house cold pressed juice bar, which we launched in 2021. So if you can't eat your fruit and veg (which is the number one best way to get your vital nutrients) you can now drink them instead.

Our cold pressed juice process is the second best way to intake nutrients. We take raw fruit and veg, slowly and gently mulch them, and then gently press them with tonnes of weight, extracting smooth pure juice full of live enzymes, vitamins and minerals your body and mind will love you for. All of our recipes have been created for different areas of the body and ailments in order to help support health.

Our single juice and juice cleanses are available every day to grab and go in store, as well as online for nationwide delivery. We also offer in-store consultations so just drop in and see one of our juice experts. We can even tailor a juice for you.

And what we offer does not stop there!

We do milkshakes, smoothies, barista coffees (worker bee of Edgeley), herbal teas and super food lattes.

We have an extensive range of free from groceries, including gluten free, plant based and dairy free.

And we also have a large refillery station including liquid household products, personal care, confectionery, fruit & nuts, pasta, rice, lentils, teas, oils and vinegars.

We’re open seven days a week. Come and say hello!

Visit waterhousesqualityfood.com for further details.

Photo of the day

A sea of blue and white in April, as thousands of County fans lined the streets of Stockport to celebrate the League Two title.

Today in SK

🎬 Cinema

One film at The Savoy Cinema (SK4) today. Horizon: An American Saga Chapter 1 (15) at 4pm and 7.30pm. Click here for tickets.

💿 DJs

Clint Boon at AMP (SK1). 9pm. Free entry.

Stockport’s biggest party at the weekend is at Bask (SK1), with DJ Gareth Brooks playing till 3am. Last entry 1.30am.

Andy Brinsley at The Crown (SK6). 9pm.

🍺 Food and drink

If you’re in Stockport today, pop into The Petersgate Tap (SK1) for a pint or two.

All pints £2.50 at The Cross Keys (SK8) from 6pm till 9pm.

🎤 Karaoke

The Nelson Tavern (SK1) with Lee. From 8pm.

🎸 Live music

Dr Uke at The Dog & Partridge (SK2). 8.30pm.

100 random grounds that County have played at

#51 – Mazuma Stadium, Morecambe

Last visit: An unbelievably wet and windy day last December. Looked like it was going to be a miserable afternoon on the pitch as well, but Kyle Wootton rescued a point with three minutes to go.