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First County Visit:	Saturday 3rd September 1983
Competition:	Canon League Division 4 – (Tier 4)
Result:	Reading 6 – 2 Stockport County
Attendance:	2,689
Away Trip:	28
Away Day:	80
County Line-up	1 Mike Salmon; 2 Andy Thorpe; 3 John Rutter; 4 Dean Emerson; 5 Tommy Sword; 6 Graham Jones; 7 John Ryan (12 Nigel Smith); 8 Oshor Williams; 9 Micky Quinn; 10 Mike Power; 11 Steve Sherlock
Scorers:	Oshor Williams; John Rutter
Manager:	Eric Webster
County Visits:	3

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3 POINTS DROPPED – COSTLY IN THE LONG RUN

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But one of the ground rules of this volume as well as a chronological approach is “no corrections, (other than typos), to text already committed to the hard drive”. So it has to be done here.  Bristol wasn’t my last train trip, but Elm Park certainly was. (†)

It was a very early season trip.  Strange this one, but it was only the second league game of the season and September had already dawned.  Things have changed a bit since then.  The season now seems to start with the first appearance of August, and with six or seven weeks of the cricket season remaining.  Fortunately my summer activity in the Ashton CC 2^nd XI saw games in the close of the season switch to Sundays, so the Saturday was free for a trip down South.  The drive was particularly unappealing, with the unreliability of my vehicle, a Fiat 128 3P, which rejoiced in the model name “Berlinetta”, (no, I don’t know either), offering no certainty that Elm Park would be in reach.  With no desire to potentially have to avail myself of National Breakdown the train was the only option.

The Fingerpost Flyer would not see the light of day for another decade to come, and it was always a case of the County following getting to far flung places in self organised trips rather than any official conveyance. 

The Flyer has been a faithful servant since 1993, running to every single away game since then.  Most of the time on a 52 seater, but it has been known that a midweek trip to somewhere like Swindon would necessitate a down scaling to a Transit.  It’s a remarkable record.  Set up originally by Jim Wilkinson for, if I recall correctly a long distance haul down to Home Park, it made for many a good day out for Jeff and myself in the mid 90’s. 

Prior to retirement Jim had been employed on the railways, and his organisation was such that the local Railwaymen’s club in the environs of wherever we were playing would be the appointed watering hole for the thirsty travellers.  The one near the Bescot Stadium was a particular favourite, although I also remember one in Watford, which involved a mini detour if Underhill was the destination.  Jim sadly passed away many years ago, and the mantle of Fingerpost Flyer supremo passed to Lou Spalding.  Lou is a man of many jokes, albeit pretty poor ones, but a whole generation of County fans has more than cause to be grateful for his unstinting efforts for 20 years

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For Jeff Lawrenson and myself it was the staple mode of travel during the Annus Mirabilis when long distance hikes seemingly every Tuesday or Wednesday were the order of the day. Dave Espley titled his book “Saturday Night and Thursday Morning”.  And that’s what it was – long distance trips ending late on a Saturday evening or well into a Thursday morning.  Mid-week games that season at West Ham; Southampton; Gillingham; Bournemouth and Plymouth, (all in the space of a few weeks) must surely have disturbed the residents of Hempshaw Lane, upon which the Fingerpost stood, as the coach disgorged its human cargo in the early hours. It was a weekly ritual of grabbing 3 hours sleep before heading for work. But, and not a single Hatters fan would ever gainsay it, worth every penny spent and equally every minute,

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September 1983.  A train to Euston initially followed by a connection from Paddington out to Reading, and then a bus.  With more than a bit of time to spare it proffered the chance of doing a circumnavigation.  In truth not a great deal to see, other than from the outside the Main Stand seemed to rise well above the surrounding streets.  I opted for a seat in this area, and entered to find a not unusual creation mainly of wood, and far from comfortable seating.  Opposite was the Tilehurst Terrace, a veritable hotch-potch of covering.  It looked as though it had been covered in stages, and probably had been.  Three different heights along the length, and the odd crush barrier dotted about.  But it most certainly had the potential for a bit of atmosphere. 

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On my visits Elm Park looked very much like the clip in this video. Its taken from the Vale Tarci You Tube Channel from “Demolished Football Stadiums”

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It was hardly tested that afternoon as less than 3,000 bothered to show up, but on a later visit in Christmas 1993, with a crowd almost five times as many that potential was definitely borne out. To the left the Town End, a decent sized open terrace with a smaller but similar enclosure at the other end. Simon Inglis suggested back in 1983 that “Elm Park is probably the least interesting ground in the Football League”, but did qualify this by adding “from an aesthetic point of view, I stress”.  

With the passing of 34 years I offer no view other than its replacement, the Madejski Stadium, admittedly from with only the benefit of a TV screen rather an actual visit, seems to hold far less interest.  Coincidentally, as I write these words, it’s only 24 hours since I watched Reading take on QPR in a virtually empty Madejski.  It looked just like all these other standard build, totally soulless arenas.  As a traditionalist give me Elm Park any time.

We lost 6-2.  It was only the second time that I had seen new keeper Mike Salmon.  He had joined County that summer, following a single appearance for Blackburn Rovers, (plus a handful of loan starts for Chester). Only just 19 when he stepped out at Elm Park having replaced long serving Brian Lloyd between the sticks.  It was going to be interesting to see how such a callow youth would handle the rough and tumble of Division 4 football.  Those 90 minutes didn’t bode well as the Reading attack took him to task, and I feared that the search would have to start for a replacement.  It shows how little I knew, and furthermore how wrong it can be to arrive at a snap judgement based on a single display. 

Salmon was to become a fixture in the County goal and went onto a pretty fruitful career.  From his debut against York the week previously until his departure, following a single goal defeat at Exeter two and a half years later he played in every single one of the 134 matches County played.  A lengthy career centred around Bolton; Wrexham and Charlton followed, and given that he also spent some time as goalkeeping coach with Arsenal I think that Arsene Wenger’s considered view is probably of more value than my first assessment.

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Looking towards the Norfolk Road, (Main) Stand. The Tilehurst End is on the left; the Town End on the right, and the rear of the Tilehurst Terrace

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Two later visits ensued.  The Christmas fixture in 1993.  It was a tortuous trip.  A defeat, (2-0 as it turned out), on a long journey never helps, but having fought the way down from the North West, through the Potteries and West Midlands which were blanketed in snow it felt a bit of a let-down.  The return trip was no better.  Some might say it was madness, and some may well be right on this occasion.  In pursuit of a game of football Arthur Brotherton and I spent somewhere near 11 hours driving that day.  But it was an important game.

The previous two seasons had seen County, by now in the third tier, miss out on promotion in the play-offs.  In 1992 Wembley heartache followed the “was it over the line” debate as Ken Charlery’s chip over Neil Edwards struck the bar and bounced down.  It was at the same end of Wembley that the infinitely more famous, but almost identical incident saw Mr Bakramhov adjudge Geoff Hurst’s effort to have crossed the very same goal-line, and effectively secure the World Cup.  Twelve months later a crushing late goal from Martin Foyle saw Vale over the line at the semi-final stage.  Was it going to be third time lucky?  The records show not, but as we travelled southwards we did but live in hope.

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It was the classic “top of the table” clash.  Reading were top of the pile on 44 points, four more than County who were hot on their tail. 11,240 packed into Elm Park (†), and even despite the weather there was a more than decent contingent from the North.  It wasn’t a good County display – in fact it wasn’t a good December.  The defeat at Reading made it only a single point from three games, and really handed the initiative to the Royals, who went on to win the title. 

† One of the main contributors to the Stockport County Supporters Messageboard has suggested that my comment on the crowd should have included the following “ … due to the MASSIVE following that came down from Cheshire, resulted in the kickoff being delayed for 15 minutes in order to get all the away fans into the ground, which culminated in the Royals biggest attendance of the season so far“. Thanks to Dosser Jacket!!

County finished in fourth spot, beat York in the playoff semi-final, and were then subject to Mr Elleray at Wembley.  Putting it simply nine men will always struggle against eleven.  Elleray’s dismissal of both Mike Wallace and Chris Beaumont and failure to take any action against the equally guilty Ted McMinn rendered the match somewhat less than a contest. 

Three points at Reading that December afternoon would have left County as Champions; saved all that grief but would have left County followers without the name Elleray to hold up as a bogeyman alongside friend Willis of Old Trafford fame. It’s a truism that anybody wedded to any Club needs to be able to reflect on the great memories but also with the safe passage of time to be able to also recall those times when circumstances; inept officiating and the “bounce of the ball” mean that things conspire to deny your team of its just rewards.

January 2017

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(†) Postscript March 2020.

As it turned out it wasn’t the last time I used a train. Re-reading what I had written up to 3 or more years previously. I note that Julie and I used the train for a trip to London in 1985 – she to look at the shops and myself to sample the delights of Brisbane Road. And many years later in April 2018, around about 6 months into my post stem cell transplant recovery, (and 15 months after I penned the original post), I had no strength to face the drive to North Ferriby. I wanted to see the game so decided to avail myself of the Transpennine Express service to Hull. “Express” was a a bit of a misnomer. Whilst it proved to be a decent win it presented more travails on the rail network. But more of that in the Grange Lane post.

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VISITS

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Day	Date	Competition	Tier / Round	Opponents	Res	F	A	Crowd	Away Day
Sat	03/09/83	Canon League Division 4	Tier 4	Reading	L	2	6	2,689	80
Tues	28/12/93 (Highlights)	Endsleigh League Division 2	Tier 3	Reading	L	0	2	11,240	272
Sat	08/11/97	Nationwide Football League – Division 1	Tier 2	Reading	L	0	1	7,444	370

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ON MY JOURNEY WITH COUNTY AROUND 180 GROUNDS

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Previously – BLOOMFIELD ROAD Next stop – SALTERGATE