Steve Fleet in Zambia

Following the funeral of County’s former goalkeeper yesterday, Keith Mills shares a rather unique memory from the 1960s

Mar 14, 2025

Friday 14 March 2025

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NEXT HOME GAME: Burton Albion – Saturday 29 March, 12.30pm

NEXT AWAY GAME: Bolton Wanderers – Tomorrow, 12.30pm

Dear County fans, Stopfordians, and anyone else from The Football Family joining us today, a very warm welcome to your Friday edition of The Scarf My Father Wore.

Keith Mills has written a piece for us today, sharing his own personal memories of Steve Fleet, who made 21 appearances for County during our Fourth Division title-winning campaign of 1966-67.

Today’s edition is sponsored by That Cat Flap Company. A big thank you to Matthew.

You’ll also see the advert for my comedy night at the end of this month. I’ve got 10 tickets left, which I’d love to get rid of. We’ve got a fantastic line-up, including Mike Newall (Britain’s Got Talent) and Chris Washington (Live from the BBC, Mock the Week, Richard Osman’s House of Games). Drop me a message if you’d like to come along.

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: 227.84 miles

Total steps so far: 371,086

Total raised so far: £2,270

Total completed streets so far: 474 (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

Photo credit: Stockport County FC

It’s been a sad week for County fans, with the funeral of Steve Fleet taking place yesterday just a few hours after the death of Lou Spalding was announced.

Steve was County’s keeper from 1966 to 1968, later returning as a coach. The announcement of Steve’s death brought back many happy memories for me personally.

Why does it mean so much? I was a teacher in the Zambian copper mining town of Luanshya when, in the summer of 1968, Steve came out as a member of an English FA coaching team to support local players. He spent time with Roan United, our local First Division club, because of the quality of a pair of goalkeepers contracted to that team.

One of these was Emmanuel Mwape, mentioned in the final two paragraphs of the Stockport Express article above. By this time he was the Roan number one having followed on from Happy Malama (also a Zambian international!) who held that position when we first arrived there in 1967. Mwape went on to be the first choice keeper for the Zambian national team, and won the goalkeeper of the tournament award at the 1974 African Nations Cup.

It was a real pleasure to meet Steve Fleet during his time in Luanshya. He was so easy to get on with both at Roan United and on the occasions that he came into the school where I was working: Roan Antelope Secondary School.

I didn’t actually write the above article. There are things in there I wouldn’t have said. The Stockport Express journalist must have made some modifications and additions.

Emmanuel wasn’t STILL at school. His education had finished early; whether that had been from poverty or a lack of academic potential I do not know. In those days the copper mine bosses awarded jobs to players which meant that they were able to be “virtual” full-time professionals as coaching took place during the working week.

But Emmanuel had a dream of coming to England to study at what was then Loughborough College. For that he needed O-levels and so he returned to school, many years older than the rest of his class.

I taught him English language and literature. And honestly it wasn’t my fault that his dream was never going to be realised. He was a truly talented footballer, but it was clear that leaving school early had been the better route. No academic!

The sadness of Steve Fleet’s death brought back those memories of the very short time that I knew him and it was heartwarming to witness the funeral cortege pausing at Edgeley Park and to watch as Steve Bellis placed a County scarf on the coffin.

RIP Steve Fleet.

Keep your cat cosy while the weather’s still cold!

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Photo(s) of the day

In the build-up to the recent home game with Blackpool, I spent all week sharing the 55 photos I’d snapped at the seaside earlier in the season - our best away day of 2024-25 so far. With Bolton coming up on Saturday, I’ve decided to do the same again, as our 5-0 victory at home to the Trotters is certainly the EP highlight of the campaign to date. I took 20 photos on that memorable November afternoon, so there’s four each day for you.

Today in SK

🎬 Cinema

Two films at The Savoy Cinema (SK4) today. The Last Showgirl (15) at 6pm, followed by Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy (15) at 8.15pm.

➡️ Click here for tickets.

🎶 DJ

Friday Night Disco with DJ Keith at The Nelson Tavern (SK1). 8pm.

🍔 Food and drink

Happy Hour at Covent Garden Café (SK1) between 1.30pm and 2.30pm. If you spend £20 or more you get to roll the dice, and if you roll a 6 your bill is half price!

Bitter £2.30 a pint all day at The Cross Keys (SK8). Plus, discounts on certain lagers between 12pm and 6pm.

A number of venues are featured on The Scarf My Father Wore such as The Crown (SK2), The Dog & Partridge (SK2), The Steelworks (SK6), The Three Tunnes (SK7), Flute & Firkin (SK12) and The Ram’s Head (SK12). Support them this month by popping in for a few drinks and a bite to eat.

🎤 Karaoke

The Alexandra (SK3).

🎸 Live music

The Baltimore Switch at The Crown Inn (SK6). 9pm.

Random snippets from old County programmes

#19 - County v Ipswich, 15 April 2000

‘Good Guinness, Crispy Lettuce and Multipack Paracetamol.’ I tell you what, Steve Bellis used to write some cracking programme columns back in the day!

The M25 has often been described as the world’s largest car park and after our recent trip to flat beer land I can see why. Having set off at lunchtime on the Friday to avoid any excessive traffic, we thought we had achieved our aim when we reached the foot of the M40 at ten to three. It was then that we noticed the almost motionless westbound traffic on the M25. There was another option of course, we could have made our way through central London, but the journey to Selhurst involves running through those quaint little districts called Brixton and Peckham - so M25 it was.

It was a lovely evening in South London, positively T-shirt weather, and as we settled down in the hotel bar to discuss our prospects there was a hint of summer in the air. The Guinness was as it should be (except £1 more) and the bitter was dog poo to be quite honest.

We were soon slumped in a taxi heading for South Croydon and were pouring into a bar called The Black Sheep. This title proved quite apt as everyone else in the bar seemed to be enjoying the absolutely awful music and the beer whilst we thought the music was on at the wrong speed and the beer had all the quality of a Spar carrier bag. We sidled out pretending to move to the music, which basically resembled walking whilst having an epileptic fit, and wandered across the road to a Chinese restaurant.

This is where the night took a positive upturn. The Chinese was different class. We started with the aromatic crispy duck with pancakes, hoisin sauce etc, and it was heaven on a plate. The second course involved some minced lamb and cashew nuts served in crispy lettuce pieces - it was made to make your mouth water stuff. I can’t describe the rest of the courses because if my mouth generates any more saliva the printers will not be able to read this load of nonsense. Anyway, after a couple of glasses (pint size) of wine we were poured into another taxi and were soon sleeping off the night’s excesses.

Morning brought more glorious sunshine and a walk round a garden centre - I’m still not sure why. Basically the garden centre consisted of £200 plants and £5,000 greenhouses. We left politely and hurriedly.

Eventually we were huddled in Selhurst Park brimming with excitement about the game. At half past three we were searching for any available nooses, razor blades or multipacks of paracetamol. We were 3-0 down to a side who were at best - KAK!

Amazingly one of my travelling companions, a rather well known solicitor called Mr Barrow, suggested that if we were to get one back before the break, we would get at least a point. Even more amazingly I agreed. The script was written and followed to the letter as our beloved team proceeded to tear Palace to shreds. We could have won - probably should have won - but when you’ve been three down away from home, a point will do just fine.

All in all a very pleasant trip south - except for the M25 of course.