Wrexham 1 County 0

There are three certainties in life: death, taxes and County losing at the Racecourse

Mar 25, 2025

Tuesday 25 March 2025

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

NEXT AWAY GAME: Exeter City – Saturday 5 April, 3pm

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

Ah, Wrexham versus Stockport County. A fixture that seems to bring out the worst in both sets of supporters. Social media has been awash with nutjobs from both sides of the border since the weekend. Fortunately, we’ve got two of the more sensible fans to produce our match report for us, both analysing the game pretty well I’d say. Gaz from Chips for a Quid shares his thoughts on a huge victory for Wrexham, while Mozzer draws the short straw on having to report on County’s fourth consecutive defeat at the Racecourse.

Today’s edition is sponsored by C J Motors Stockport. A big thank you to Connor.

Thanks also to Rough Hands Tap who sponsor our Wrexham content on the website.

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: 253.75 miles

Total steps so far: 418,084

Total raised so far: £2,292

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

✍️ Saturday’s match in one word

Gaz: Mardy.

Mozzer: Fuxache.

🤔 Pre-match thoughts

Gaz: Hopeful of a win but would’ve taken a point.

Mozzer: That we needed to win if we wanted any chance of finishing second. Even then it’d be a longish shot, but you think about winning and do the virtual table in your head, then tell yourself that if we won there then that could make them wobble a bit and we’d maybe get in their heads, then it’d be on and we’d be full of confidence and all of that stuff, and despite spending the season telling anyone who’ll listen (and some who won’t) that you’d be happy with mid-table, you find yourself getting a little bit enticed by the prospect. I also thought we wouldn’t win.

🧐 Post-match thoughts

Gaz: Huge victory! We just might do this after all…

Mozzer: [Self-redacted on the grounds that this won’t be published otherwise.]

🔴 Verdict on Wrexham

Gaz: We really battled tooth and nail for that one. It wasn’t pretty but it was definitely impressive in its own way.

Mozzer: Well, I thought before the game they were favourites to finish second and that just made me think I was right. Did they target Camps? Maybe. Whether they did or not, his clattering changed the game in my view. Before that, I thought he and Bate had the better of the midfield battle and both stopped them going through that area and gave us a platform from which to attack them. After he went off Wrexham had much more of it and whilst they also had very few chances in the game, they also had a lot more control. They’re second for a reason and they were very solid in holding onto that lead. They should maybe have scored from a free header in the second half, but otherwise they seemed happy to keep it tight and not risk too much without actually being defensive in set up. Job well done for them.

🔵 Verdict on County

Gaz: Tidy side, it’s no surprise to see you right up there in the table. Expected more of Olaofe and Wootton up top, but maybe that was more to do with how well our defenders played.

Mozzer: First 20 minutes or so we were clearly the better side but yet again at Y Cae Ras, we didn’t make that period pay dividends and I said well before they went one up that we’d regret it, because that’s what we do there now. And we obviously did. I think it was one of those performances that if we come away with a point, everyone says it was a good battling effort at a difficult ground against a side that’s right up there. But once we went one down, Wrexham did a decent job of holding us at arm’s length and I don’t think we did enough over the rest of the game to really make us think we were going to get one back. We had a go and Challinor’s subs were definitely made with a view to doing that. Sometimes though you have to accept that, on the day, what you had wasn’t quite enough.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Top Red Dragon

Gaz: Probably O’Connell or Rathbone. Both of them were excellent.

Mozzer: Can I be puerile and say, ‘The ref’? No? Okay. Fair enough. I genuinely don’t know. In my fears about the game beforehand I was worried about their frontmen and I’d heard lots of good things about Rathbone. In general play, the frontmen weren’t anywhere near as scary as I expected and I thought Rathbone was bypassed by the game for much of it. I only really noticed him when he was leaving a foot in or being a general pain in the arse – and not in a good ‘general pain in the arse’ way that midfielders can. They must have had someone doing good things for them because, as noted, they did a decent job on us. I’ll let the Wrexham fan pick out the player that, like Bate for us, was marginally better than the rest of his hard-working but not especially creative team (on the day).

🎩 Top Hatter

Gaz: Brad Hills. Where does this guy actually play? He seemed to pop up all over the pitch. Quality footballer. And he also did us the courtesy of getting himself sent off. Thanks pal.

Mozzer: Hmm. Going to say Bate. It was one of those where I think everyone put the effort in but technically there wasn’t a lot very positive going on once Camps went off. Pye and Connolly did well at the back, although the former was perhaps lucky to get away with a potential penalty. In a game where we had no one who stood out as being particularly good or particularly bad, Bate just seemed to be in the middle of everything and did the basics well.

👂 Atmosphere

Gaz: Decent atmosphere, especially as we tried to push the lads over the line and things began to get a bit rowdy on the pitch.

Mozzer: Decent enough without it reaching the heights it did three years ago. Anyone pretending 3rd v 5th at this stage isn’t a big game for us both is delusional. However, I think there was less riding on this than there was back then, even for Wrexham, who will rightly be looking at this as a very decent three points in the race for second. But not getting promoted doesn’t have the fear factor the National League seasons did. Having said that, in the home section, I wonder if they’re affected a bit by the tourist infiltration, because it’s clear those tourists are there and it definitely wasn’t as raucous, except in the section to the right behind the goal. We were pretty good, I thought, but again not as feral as we’ve been in the past there. We can ditch the sectarian shite though, the stuff about Reynolds is embarrassing and can go the same way, and at the time of writing, it’s not entirely clear what happened at half-time, but however much McClean winds people up (and I’m in the ‘don’t give a toss generally, but he was definitely acting up on Saturday’ camp) we can’t be getting involved with players in the way that’s been indicated. We’ve got superb support when we put our minds to it – we do that best when we’re behind County, not when we’re being ‘daft’ in the various ways we were at times on Saturday.

🙏 Hopes for the rest of the season

Gaz: I think we’ve got to go for it now. We’re in a great position. Town are going up olé olé…

Mozzer: This is probably the fourth or fifth of these I’ve done this season. In every one I’ve said I’ll take upper mid-table. Of course, we are now where we are and whilst second has, in all reasonableness, now gone, I suspect anything less than the play-offs will be seen as a bit of a failure from here. Maybe it will, but I’d still be happy enough with seventh. I’ve had my fill of play-offs. I wouldn’t turn them down if they happened, because you never know what’s round the corner and I know that if we got there, I’d be properly up for them (because football fans can’t help ourselves, can we?). All I see at the moment though, is expense, stress and, ultimately, pain.

😀 Best part of the day

Gaz: A rendition of “Stockport get battered” at the final whistle was quite fun…

Mozzer: County mates. Whatever happens on the pitch, you’ve still got them to enjoy/endure it all with.

😡 Worst part of the day

Gaz: Having to sit through that ref’s performance. So frustrating. For everyone in the ground.

Mozzer: That penalty. Just fuck off. You can’t do that. Both sets of fans will complain about the ref for various things, I know. And maybe they should have had another one and it all evens up and all that stuff. But that is an objectively pisspoor incident to decide a game. It’s not even the defeat that followed – for me that was a 0-0 game and a draw wouldn’t have done us a lot of good – it’s the way in which the penalty decision played out. I can take defeat and I can even take defeat to Wrexham in a big game. But that one’s going to feel unkind to us in a way none of the other recent defeats there have done.

The British Library receives a copy of every single book published in the UK. In the same fashion, Des Junior believes a detailed record of every County game should be preserved for the history books. So here’s the full story of our 1-0 defeat at Wrexham on Saturday 22 March, as told from his County-related WhatsApp groups…

9.43am: In Conwy this weekend. Just walking the dog up to the beach, wearing a County training top, and our first Wrexham fan just walked past… a Yank.

9.50am: Drown him in the sea! Absolute circus of a club.

3.20pm: Got to say these have been poor so far. We’re far better. Which means inevitable heartbreak.

3.27pm: Well it was nice to appoint McClean the referee for the day…

3.29pm: McClean pushed Touray in the back then headed it into his arm. Shocking decision.

3.38pm: Wrexham reaping the dividends of nobbling Camps early on.

3.56pm: I'm in a pub full of United and City fans watching it and every single fucker in here has said no penalty.

3.58pm: Made a tit of myself in a boozer in London. Only one paying any attention to the game, cheered the save which brought everyone’s attention to the screen… just in time for him to slot the rebound home. Lovely.

4.41pm: Hills off. Second yellow.

5.15pm: Paul Merson’s just said we were the better team and it was never a penalty.

5.16pm: First thing he’s got right in years.

5.55pm: I thought we played well today. Needed someone like Macca in the positions Knoyle got in. Similar with Rydel for Touray. Bate bossed the midfield for long periods. Without that pen, we probably nick that 1-0. Very, very fine margins. 0-0, 1-0 and 0-1 from the last three. Play-offs could be unbearable. More penalties.

10.26pm: Can we talk about you putting a Wrexham shirt on, Des?

10.28pm: Yes please.

10.30pm: The ref definitely saw that pic and thought, fuck Stockport. Red card and penalty today.

Make sure you get your car serviced before your next trip

Not everyone travels abroad these days for a holiday. Whether you’re taking your caravan to Cornwall, your motorhome to Margate, or simply packing up your Skoda for a few days in Skegness, make sure you’re on top of your servicing. Don’t be that family stuck on the hard shoulder with their hazard lights on!

Before you go away, get your vehicle booked in for a service with Connor at CJ Motors (opposite The Peel Centre) to avoid any additional stress on your holiday.

➡️ Visit cjmotorsuk.com for further details.

Photo of the day

Pirelli Stadium, Burton

Burton Albion visit SK3 this weekend. Here’s a photo of some of the 1,700 County fans celebrating at their place back in November. Dave Challinor’s men won 3-0, Bate and Barry (2) on target.

Pop into Rough Hands Tap for a pint this week

Any Wrexham fans (or indeed any of our other readers from North Wales) joining us today? Enjoy a pint or two at Rough Hands Tap this week, Wrexham’s newest craft beer bar.

Located at Chapter Court on Queens Street, everyone’s welcome for good chat and cracking craft beer or bangin' coffee.

➡️ Visit roughhands.co.uk for further details.

Today in SK

🎬 Cinema

One film at The Savoy Cinema (SK4) this evening. Mickey 17 (15) at 8pm.

➡️ Click here for tickets.

🥃 Food and drink

The Nelson Tavern (SK1) have a great range of offers throughout the week, including £5.50 for drinks off the Doubles Bar, a comprehensive range of shots for £1.50, and 3 for £7 on Jägerbombs. Also, double up for £2 on premium spirits.

Bitter £2.30 a pint all day at The Cross Keys (SK8).

A number of venues are featured on The Scarf My Father Wore such as The Crown (SK2), The Dog & Partridge (SK2), The Alexandra (SK3), The Crown Inn (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 or a bite to eat.

⁉️ Quiz night

The Steelworks (SK6). 7.30pm. £1 per person.

Random snippets from old County programmes

#29 - County v Portsmouth, 28 November 1998

County haven’t lost to Bolton in the league since November 1998, when Bob Taylor scored a late winner for the Trotters at Edgeley Park. Colin Woodthorpe was sent off for County on that occasion, and Gary Megson was not best pleased…

As for the sending off of Colin Woodthorpe, he will be dealt with internally, and I think that if I say what I truthfully feel now it may lead to problems later, but I will say that it is totally and utterly unacceptable.