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Elevation to Division 1, (the equivalent of today’s Championship), took us to a variety of new stadia – some of them the most traditional of English football grounds. I was looking forward to going to The Valley. It had of course been resurrected in 1992, after Charlton had left it seven years previously, and spent time playing firstly at Selhurst Park and subsequently at Upton Park. I was well aware of the ground’s previous huge capacity, (it had once held 75,000 for football and by all accounts The Who had appeared the in front of 80,000). Pictures of it as it was showed it was a huge bowl, so a little different from EP!! (The header picture to this page shows it as it originally was)

The game at the back end of 1997 was the 9th of the season in the higher tier, and it hadn’t been the best of starts. The first seven saw but three draws and it was only the previous weekend that the first victory, over Huddersfield, had arrived. We were languishing in 18th place, and thoughts were turning as to whether it would be just a one season stay in the 2nd Tier. The sole satisfaction was that we were at least better off then Manchester City.

By half time on a pleasant autumn afternoon we were one behind, and it looked as though it would be another fruitless trip to add to those already made that season to Bradford; QPR; The Vale and Stoke. It remained the same until 20 minutes from time. A corner from Chris Marsden found its way to Alun Armstrong who bundled it over the line. 1-1. Two minutes later a long throw from Mike Flynn found its way to Brett Angell, who swivelled and hit it beyond the keeper. The turn around was compete 12 minutes from the end when a long clearance from Sean Connelly was picked up by Armstrong who got to the by-line, crossed it and Richard Rufus slid it in for an own-goal. It was one of this moments when what was a more than decent travelling support went wild.

It was the turning point for the season. The 16 games to the New Year brought 9 wins and a couple of draws, and, of course, the most satisfying of those victories was that at the end of November. Stockport County 3-1 Manchester City!!

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Memories of 2 trips to The Valley

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THE GAMES

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Where the date is in bold click for highlights of the game

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	Date	Venue	Ground	Competition		F	A	Att:
Sat	27/09/97	a	The Valley	Nationwide Football League – Division 1 (Tier 2)	W	3	1	12,083
Sat	21/02/98	h	Edgeley Park	Nationwide Football League – Division 1 (Tier 2)	W	3	0	7,705
Sat	05/02/00	h	Edgeley Park	Nationwide Football League – Division 1 (Tier 2)	L	1	3	8,185
Sat	12/12/09	h	Edgeley Park	Coca-Cola Football League – League 1 (Tier 3)	L	1	2	4,277
Sat	06/03/10	a	The Valley	Coca-Cola Football League – League 1 (Tier 3)	L	0	2	16,609

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