SUMMARY

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Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	Ave Att:
28	12	9	7	3,460

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It stayed with the portrait format. This issue is for the game against Hereford, (on 15/10/88 – lost 2-1) and features Paul Hendrie on the cover with Nigel Hart in the background. The main ‘ad’ on the cover was for Sovereign Rubber whose name also appeared on the shirts.

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THE ARRIVAL OF THE “MAN FROM URUGUAY”

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It was a 100% record for me this year, making it to all 28 games at EP. And it wasn’t a bad record with only 7 defeats. It marked of course the arrival of Danny Bergara in March. He didn’t make an immediate impact, but the arrival of the 1989/90 season saw 9 home wins in the 15 games before the turn of the year. The change was a sign of things to come.

1989 started with us in mid table with the opening game of the year against an Exeter team pushing for promotion. The evening was marked by a stunning debut from the bench of Tony Hancock. Three weeks previously on a Saturday morning, and as was my wont then, I went to see the reserve team. They were playing at Platt Lane against Manchester City’s A team. A lad with longish curly hair caught my eye. He had great control; quick feet and unquestionably an eye for goal. Chatting with Eric Webster, I asked him who he was. “Tony Hancock – he’s been playing for Stockport Georgians”, he replied, “I’ve heard good things about him so I thought he’d be worth a look”. He was simply sensational.

I headed off to Altrincham. It was a 2nd round cup tie against Halifax, (County having exited in the 1st round at the hands of Scarborough and thus had a free day). I met up with Eric at Moss Lane too, and asked him whether we’d see Hancock again. He said that he was going to have a word with Asa Hartford.

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So three weeks later we saw him come off the bench. He was electric and scored a great goal to seal a 4-0 win. I thought that we would see him for a good while to come but his County career was short and sweet. By the summer he had moved on to Burnley. Great business for County, as we picked up £50,000. It had been an entertaining 4 months or so – 12 starts, 10 sub appearances and 5 goals. He sadly had a bad injury and an all too fleeting league career ended within 2 years.

After the Exeter win there were only three more in the next 13 games, and it marked the end for Hartford as Chairman Brendan Elwood, (who had been in the role since late 1988), looked to turn the Club round. There can be little doubt that this crucial decision led to the the basis for the glory days of the 1990’s. When Hartford left, (after only 24 wins in 94 games), we stood 12th in the 4th Tier. Just under 11 years later we were 6th in Tier 2. The statistics don’t lie.

Bergara assembled a decent team to start the 1989/90 season. There was some firepower up front. he brought the best out of Angell, (who was on target 17 times before the end of 1989); we saw a brief cameo from George Oghani and Keith Edwards, (a regular goalscorer throughout his career), arrived from Hull. By the end of the year he had added 7 more to the impressive 237 he had at his previous clubs. Bergara went back to Rochdale for players he had experience with, and Malcolm Brown; David Frain and Chris Beaumont made the short trip to EP. The latter two were integral to the success throughout Bergara’s spell as manager. It was hard to think at the time that between them they would appear for County almost 600 times

It was clear watching from the stands that things had started to come together. We gave QPR more than a run for their money in the League Cup. and by the end of the decade, four months into Bergara’s first full season at EP, we stood 3rd in the table, with real hopes of a promotion push in the New Year.

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Back to 1988 Forward to 1990 Home Games Summary Page Away Games

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THE HOME GAMES I SAW THIS YEAR

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Day	Date	Competition	Tier / Round	Opponents	Res	F	A	Crowd	Home Game
Mon	02/01/89	Barclays League Division 4	Tier 4	Exeter City	W	4	0	2,936	302
Sat	07/01/89	Barclays League Division 4	Tier 4	Scunthorpe United	L	1	2	2,656	303
Fri	20/01/89	Barclays League Division 4	Tier 4	Darlington	D	0	0	2,889	304
Fri	10/02/89 (Highlights)	Barclays League Division 4	Tier 4	Crewe Alexandra	L	0	1	5,005	305
Fri	17/02/89	Barclays League Division 4	Tier 4	Rochdale	W	3	0	2,848	306
Sat	04/03/89	Barclays League Division 4	Tier 4	Scarborough	D	2	2	2,648	307
Mon	13/03/89	Barclays League Division 4	Tier 4	Colchester United	W	1	0	2,027	308
Fri	17/03/89	Barclays League Division 4	Tier 4	Cambridge United	D	0	0	2,566	309
Mon	27/03/89	Barclays League Division 4	Tier 4	Torquay United	D	0	0	2,808	310
Fri	07/04/89	Barclays League Division 4	Tier 4	Carlisle United	D	1	1	2,543	311
Fri	21/04/89	Barclays League Division 4	Tier 4	Peterborough United	L	1	2	2,091	312
Mon	01/05/89	Barclays League Division 4	Tier 4	Wrexham	D	2	2	2,118	313
Sat	06/05/89	Barclays League Division 4	Tier 4	Rotherham United	L	1	3	4,313	314
Sat	19/08/89 (Highlights)	Barclays League Division 4	Tier 4	Torquay United	D	1	1	2,356	315
Mon	21/08/89 (Highlights)	Littlewoods Challenge Cup	Round 1 (1st Leg)	Bury	W	1	0	2,851	316
Fri	01/09/89 (Highlights)	Barclays League Division 4	Tier 4	York City	D	2	2	2,793	317
Fri	15/09/89 (Highlights)	Barclays League Division 4	Tier 4	Hartlepool United	W	6	0	3,884	318
Sat	30/09/89	Barclays League Division 4	Tier 4	Scarborough	W	3	2	3,086	319
Mon	02/10/89 (Highlights)	Littlewoods Challenge Cup	Round 2 (2nd Leg)	Queens Park Rangers	D	0	0	5,997	320
Sat	07/10/89	Barclays League Division 4	Tier 4	Hereford United	W	2	1	3,428	321
Mon	16/10/89 (Highlights)	Barclays League Division 4	Tier 4	Southend United	W	1	0	6,593	322
Sat	28/10/89	Barclays League Division 4	Tier 4	Exeter City	W	2	1	3,767	323
Fri	03/11/89	Barclays League Division 4	Tier 4	Halifax Town	L	0	1	5,490	324
Tue	21/11/89 (Highlights)	FA Cup	Round 1 (Replay)	Burnley	L	1	2	6,257	325
Sat	25/11/89	Barclays League Division 4	Tier 4	Scunthorpe United	W	4	2	3,259	326
Wed	13/12/89	Leyland Daf Cup	Northern Preliminary Round	Preston North End	L	2	4	1,545	327
Tue	26/12/89	Barclays League Division 4	Tier 4	Rochdale	W	2	1	4,216	328
Fri	29/12/89 (Highlights)	Barclays League Division 4	Tier 4	Cambridge United	W	3	1	3,915	329