Stockport County F.C.

Stockport County
Full name Stockport County Football Club
Nickname(s) The Hatters, County
Founded 1883 (as Heaton Norris Rovers)
Ground Edgeley Park
Stockport
(Capacity: 10,651)
Chairman Flag of England Martin Reid
Manager Flag of Ireland Jim Gannon
League League One
2007-08 League Two, 4th
(promoted via play-offs)
Team colours Team colours Team colours
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Home colours
Team colours Team colours Team colours
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Away colours

Stockport County Football Club is an English football club based in Stockport, England. They will play in League One, the third tier of the English football pyramid in the 2008-09 season. Their home stadium is Edgeley Park. They are nicknamed The Hatters, although they are usually referred to by supporters simply as County.

The Club formed in 1883 as Heaton Norris Rovers, shortly after merging with a similarly named club, Heaton Norris F.C. and on 24 May 1890 changed their name to Stockport County Football Club to reflect Stockport becoming a County Borough[1]. They joined the Football League in 1900, and have competed in it continuously since 1905. Having spent most of their history in the lower reaches of the Football League, the 1990s were notably successful, with the club competing in the First Division for five seasons. Instability on and off the pitch led to Stockport quickly tumbling back down the leagues, narrowly avoiding a drop into the Football Conference in 2006. In 2008, the team won promotion via the playoffs back to League One.

Contents

History

For more details on this topic, see History of Stockport County F.C..

Stockport County were formed in 1883 as Heaton Norris Rovers by members of the Wycliffe Congregational Church, and played their first recorded game in October the next year. The club adopted 'The Hatters' as their nickname[2], owing to Stockport's history as the centre of the Victorian hat-making industry, a nickname that is shared with Luton Town.

Stockport played in the Lancashire League until 1900. They then gained admission to the Football League Second Division. Unfortunately, the club finished in the bottom three for their first four seasons and at the end of 1903-04 they failed to gain re-election. They spent one year in the Lancashire Combination, won the league, and were re-admitted to the Football League. County were fortunate that, despite an awful 1921-22 campaign that saw them end the season bottom of the Second Division, which would normally have seen them face re-election, they were placed in the brand new Third Division North. The Hatters won the league at the first time of asking in 1921-22, but struggled and soon returned (1925-26) to the bottom division where, barring a couple of seasons, the club would stay for more than 40 years. The 1933-34 season saw goals galore, 115 in total[3], including a 13-0 win over Halifax Town, which still stands as a Football League record[4]. In 1936-37 County won the Third Division North, but failed to gain a foothold in the Second Division, finished 22nd out of 22 and were relegated.

The 1950s brought little league success, but were notable for some fine goalscoring by Jack Connor, whose 140 goals are still a club record, including 13 hat-tricks, two instances of 4 goals in a match, and two of five goals in a match[5]. When the regional Third Divisions were to be combined into national Third and Fourth Divisions after the 1957-58 campaign, Stockport managed to finish in the top half of the Third Division North and so were placed in the following season's national Third Division. Just one season was spent at this level, Stockport were demoted and didn't return until winning the Fourth Division in 1966-67. After being relegated in 1969-70, the 1970s and 80's consisted of little other than mediocrity or struggling against re-election. The introduction of automatic promotion & relegation between the Football League & the Conference was not a good sign for Stockport and, in 1986-87 they had just 6 points from 13 games and faced a real prospect of non-League football, exemplified by crashing out of the FA Cup to Caernarfon Town. Colin Murphy was brought in for his second spell as manager, County gained 45 points from their final 31 games and survived, although Murphy left shortly after the end of the season[1].

Danny Bergara was appointed as manager in March 1989, quickly transforming the team and automatic promotion was gained in 1990-91. The next three seasons saw County make the play-offs, but failed to result in another promotion. In March 1995 Bergara was sacked after an altercation with then chairman Brendan Elwood[6], and Dave Jones was appointed manager. The 1996-97 campaign proved to be the most successful in the club's history, finishing 2nd in the Second Division and reaching the semi-final of the League Cup, knocking out three Premiership teams (Blackburn Rovers, Southampton & West Ham United) on the way before losing to Middlesbrough 2-1 on aggregate. Jones left for Southampton, and a succession of managers were unable to build on the success of the 1990s, former England international Carlton Palmer failing to stop County being relegated in 2001-02 or to build a team capable of challenging for a return in subsequent seasons. Sammy McIlroy followed as manager in 2003 but more poor results led to his sacking, and the appointment of Chris Turner just one year later. Another relegation followed, and Turner himself lasted just one year in charge, resigning after a 6-0 defeat to local rivals Macclesfield Town that left County five points adrift of safety & facing a third relegation in just four years.

Former player Jim Gannon was placed in charge, initially as caretaker-manager. He led the club to safety in 2005-06 and County sustained a promotion challenge the next season, eventually missing out on the League Two playoffs on goal difference. The 2007-08 season was more successful, and despite losing an FA Cup match to non-League Staines Town, County finished 4th and beat Rochdale 3-2 in the play-off final at Wembley Stadium to earn promotion to League One.

Colours and crest

Team colours Team colours Team colours
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Home Kit
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Away Kit
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Third Kit

Stockport County's traditional kit colours are blue & white, although they have played in other colours throughout their history. Originally competing in blue & white striped jerseys and white shorts, they experimented with red & white stripes in the early 1900s and from the mid-1930s to mid-1960s played in white jerseys & black shorts.

No set pattern has been established for the clubs use of blue & white as main colours, at various times playing in a white jersey with a blue band and blue shorts; blue jersey with white pin stripes and white shorts; a short experiment with an Argentina-style kit, light blue & white stripes with black shorts, after the 1978 World Cup, which was abandoned after the outbreak of the Falklands War[7]; and a return to blue & white striped tops with blue shorts in the 1980s. The current kit, manufactured by Diadora, is a blue shirt with a white horizontal band, blue shorts & white socks. The away kit is entirely black with gold coloured trimmings.

The club badge is based on the achievement of arms of the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport. It was further altered slightly in 2006, to resemble the town's arms even more closely, including the Latin motto Animo et Fide, which translates as With Courage and Faith.

The blue shield is taken from the coat of arms of the de Stokeport family, from whom Stockport derives its name. The twin-towered castle above the shield is Stockport Castle, which stood until 1775.

For a list of historical kits, see HistoricalKits.co.uk
For further details of the crest of Stockport, see Manchester-UK

Grounds

Main article: Edgeley Park
Panoramic view of Edgeley Park
Left: Popular Side
Centre: Cheadle End
Right: Main Stand

Heaton Norris Rovers originally played home matches at the Heaton Norris Recreation Ground, then at various locations in Stockport until settling at a park on Green Lane, Heaton Norris, in 1889. The nearby Nursery Inn served as the team's home, with players using a barn as changing rooms.[1]

In 1902 the club required a larger ground and moved to Edgeley Park, then home of Stockport Rugby League Club, who went out of business three years later[8]. Stockport County have played home games there ever since, celebrating the centenary in 2002.

The first major development at Edgeley Park was the construction of the Main Stand on the Hardcastle Road side of Edgeley Park, initially holding 500 seats. This was a timber structure, and was destroyed by a fire in 1935, taking most of the club's records with it. It was replaced by a new stand one year later, which stands today, seating just over 2,000 and containing players' changing rooms and some club offices. On the opposite side of the ground is the Popular Side (often shortened to Pop Side). The first structure on this side of the ground was a small, covered enclosure with a capacity of 1,400. This was replaced with a larger stand in 1927, and in one FA Cup match against Liverpool held 16,000 people. In 1978 the rear of the stand was dismantled and capacity halved, and in the early 1990s the Popular Side was made all-seater. It currently holds 2,200.

The first Cheadle End, built in 1923, was a small, covered timber stand with room for 3,000 people until it was made all-seater in 1967. It was demolished in 1985 after the Valley Parade fire, and replaced by a shallow, concrete terrace. In 1994 an entirely new stand was contsructed and was opened in July of that year with a 2-2 draw with Manchester City, seating 5,200, containing conference & banqueting facilities & club offices. The Railway End, formerly an uncovered terrace that could hold up to 6,000 in its heyday, was the last part of Edgeley Park to be converted to seating in 2001, making the ground all-seater[8].

In late 2000 the club considered moving to Maine Road, the former home of rivals Manchester City. The potential move was unpopular with supporters, and protests were staged after it was suggested that the club would change its name to Man-Stock County after the move. Ultimately the protests were not necessary as Manchester City Council decreed that Sale Sharks would make better tenants[9]. Maine Road has since been demolished to make way for a housing estate and, ironically, Edgeley Park is now shared with Sale, who own the ground.

In March 2008, County launched a campaign to raise funds to enable them to buy the ground back from Sale Sharks. The www.groundforapound.com site raised £50,000 within a week of opening, with a target of £1m.

Honours

Football League

Other Competitions

Youth Competitions

Club records

Team Records

Player Records

Nine game winning run

Stockport County F.C. currently hold the record for winning Football League matches without conceding a goal, namely nine.

Wayne Hennessey, who was on loan to Stockport at the time from Wolves, kept all the clean sheets in his first nine games in professional football. He made his footballing debut against Boston United where Stockport won 2-0. The players involved in the record-breaking run are below:

Wayne Hennessey, Robert Clare, Michael Rose, Ashley Williams, Gareth Owen, Stephen Gleeson, Jason Taylor, Adam Griffin, David Poole, Damien Allen, Anthony Pilkington, Tony Dinning, Dominic Blizzard, Liam Dickinson, Adam Proudlock, Tes Bramble & Anthony Elding.

During this time Wayne Hennessey got the League Two Player of the Month Award and Jim Gannon was candidate for the Manager of the Month Award twice.

Support

County supporters

With both Manchester United and Manchester City around 7 miles from Edgeley Park, Stockport County have always struggled for local support. Even during the 1998-99 season crowds averaged around 20,000 less than local rivals City, who were a division below County at the time[10].

As the two Manchester clubs, the closest clubs to Edgeley Park, have rarely been in the same division as Stockport County, they have no traditional local rivals, instead having occasional adversaries from further afield. In the early 1990s two notable rivalries began, with matches against Burnley and Stoke City having added edge for supporters. In the late 1990s and early 2000s Stockport and Manchester City were often in the same division, although with different fortunes since 2002 this rivalry has also diminished somewhat. Burnley, Manchester City and Stoke City are cited as Stockport County fans' biggest rivals[11].

Although the club has had great misfortunes on the pitch from 2000-01 onwards, crowds have continued to be rather healthy. In fact, during the 2005-06 season home attendances (that is, given attendances minus away support) increased slightly on the season before[12], helped by a 10,006 crowd against Carlisle on the final day of that season. Away support increased in recent seasons, due to a combination of lower ticket prices, improved results and the close proximity of sides such as Bury, Rochdale & Macclesfield Town, with Stockport's away support outnumbering home supporters on a number of occasions[12]. The 2006-07 season saw the club average the fourth highest average attendance in League Two[13], and was the highest average since the club's last season in the First Division[14]. The 2007-08 season saw a further increase in attendance.

Vocally, the support from Stockport fans has often been cited by manager and players as inspirational & a boost to the team during play[15][16], and for the 2006-07 season led to squad number 12 being allocated to the 'Blue & White Army', the nickname for supporters. Stockport fans also have a wide variety of songs, being ranked 7th on FootballChants.org[17] for number of individual chants.

In the 2007/2008 season, Stockport County had an average away attendance of over 900; the highest in the league. Only 2 teams in the league above surpassed this figure.

Stockport are one of a number of teams that have looked to use their support to back them beyond the turnstiles and shirt sales. Groundforapound.com has been launched with the intent of selling up to 1 million pixels to anyone who wishes to purchase a pixel upwards. This money will go towards raising £1 million as a deposit on the £4.5 million purchase of the ground.

Current squad

As of November 6, 2008.[18]
No. Position Player
1 Flag of Wales GK Owain Fôn Williams
2 Flag of England DF John Mullins
3 Flag of England DF Michael Rose
4 Flag of England MF Dominic Blizzard
6 Flag of Scotland DF Jim McNulty
7 Flag of Ireland MF Anthony Pilkington
8 Flag of Ireland MF Gary Dicker
9 Flag of Northern Ireland FW Peter Thompson
10 Flag of England MF Carl Baker
11 Flag of England MF Tommy Rowe
14 Flag of England MF Jason Taylor
15 Flag of England DF Michael Raynes
16 Flag of England DF James Tunnicliffe
17 Flag of Ireland MF Stephen Gleeson (on loan from Wolves)
No. Position Player
18 Flag of England MF Paul Turnbull
19 Flag of England FW Matty McNeil
20 Flag of Ireland MF Leon McSweeney
23 Flag of England GK Lloyd Rigby
24 Flag of England MF Greg Tansey
25 Flag of England DF Gianluca Havern
26 Flag of England MF Matty Mainwaring
27 Flag of England MF Danny Pilkington
28 Flag of England MF James Vincent
29 Flag of England FW Darren Green
30 Flag of Ireland FW Declan Edwards
31 Flag of England MF Paul Ennis
34 Flag of England FW Oli Johnson
35 Flag of Wales FW Craig Davies (on loan from Oldham)

Out on loan

No. Position Player
5 Flag of Wales DF Gareth Owen (on loan at Port Vale)

Notable former players

See also: Cat:Stockport County F.C. players, Hall of Fame

Club staff

Recent managers

For a full list of managers, see StockportCounty.net

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Freeman, Peter (1999). Stockport County - From the Nursery. ISBN 0-9537558-0-0. 
  2. ↑ Freeman & Harnwell (1994). Stockport County: A Complete Record. Derby: Breedon. ISBN 187362672X. ; later updates from [1] as applicable
  3. ↑ League Tables - Stockport County FC - SCFC MAD
  4. ↑ FOOTBALL LEAGUE RECORDS: GOALS | The Football League | Records | Goals
  5. ↑ http://www.stockportcounty.premiumtv.co.uk/page/PastPlayersDetail/0,,10419~399201,00.html
  6. ↑ Inside Football: Bergara's plight symptomatic of insular England | Independent, The (London) | Find Articles at BNET.com
  7. ↑ Stockport County - Historical Football Kits
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 EDGELEY PARK HISTORY | Stockport County | Club | EP History
  9. ↑ BBC SPORT | RUGBY UNION | Sale step closer to Maine Road
  10. ↑ Historical attendances
  11. ↑ http://www.footballfanscensus.com/issueresults/Club_Rivalries_Uncovered_Results.pdf
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Stockport County official match programmes, 04/05, 05/06 & 06/07 seasons.
  13. ↑ Attendances England average
  14. ↑ England historical attendance and performance
  15. ↑ Only sing when we’re winning? County shout loudest, win, lose or draw - News - Stockport Express
  16. ↑ Cheadlender.com - | So much more, than 'Just a website'
  17. ↑ "Football Chants Top 10". FootballChants.org, 19 June 2007.
  18. ↑ "First Team". Stockport County FC. Retrieved on 2008-11-06.

See also

External links

Official

Unofficial

Club Sponsors

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