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First County Visit:	Monday 17th September 1984
Competition:	Canon League Division 4 – (Tier 4)
Result:	Southend United 1 – 1 Stockport County
Attendance:	2,004
Away Trip:	33
Away Day:	99
County Line-up	1 Mike Salmon; 2 John Rutter; 3 Steve Sherlock; 4 Dean Emerson; 5 Tommy Sword; 6 Andy Thorpe; 7 Oshor Williams; 8 Paul Hendrie (12 Steve Buxton); 9 Steve Taylor; 10 Clive Evans; 11 Tony Coyle
Scorer:	Dean Emerson
Manager:	Eric Webster
County Visits:	6

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IF YOU ARE ******* DAFT ENOUGH TO COME ALL THIS WAY

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If truth’s known there was a little bit of cheating.  Julie and I had decided to have a few days away, and of course, as these things happen, my suggestion was a look around the south east corner of the country.  Well, why not?   I’ve no idea what kind of rationale I put forward for this selection, but once settled I did kind of mention that County were in the area. Love must be blind early in a relationship because she readily agreed, and I maybe thought that the Mansfield game, (referred to in Away Trip 21), might have been put to the back of her mind,  Ensconced in a hotel, no more than a stones throw from Roots Hall, that Monday evening I was put firmly in my place.  “You go to the game, I’m staying in to watch telly” came the commandment laid down from on high.  So be it – it was off to Number 33.

It was hardly one to pull in the punters – and it didn’t with only 4 hardy souls enabling the gate to break the 2,000 mark.  Four games into the season County had but 4 points, (lying in 16^th spot).  Southend were no better – a point less, and 3 places lower.  The Shrimpers had struggled to draw with Chester two days previously, County had fared even worse going down 2-0 at Hereford, making it three games without hitting the target.  I must have trusted the car back then committing it to a double away game and racking up the thick end of 750 miles in the space of 72 hours.

Those punters who gave it a miss had wise heads on their shoulders.  It was a grim affair, with a Dean Emerson strike from the edge of the area being equalised by the home team.  A point apiece which I suspect satisfied the Hatters, plus a goal as well.  As it happened it was the first of a five game unbeaten run. The ground itself felt tired.  Surprising given that it was conceived, funded and eventually built in the post-war years.  It had seen but 29 years service on the night of my initial visit.  I ended up in the Main, (or East), Stand, which originally only partially occupied the side of the pitch.  Two wings had been added since the original construction.  It was utilitarian at best with wooden seating, and glass ends. 

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To the right lay the North Bank, a low barrel roofed cover providing protection from the elements.  In latter visits a half of this has been set aside for visitors.  Never the best view, being low down, action at the far end tended to be a bit of a blur.  Opposite the Main Stand was another barrel roofed construction.The West Side ran almost the whole length of the touchline.  Both of these were terraces at that point as was what I regarded as the most impressive part of the ground.  To the left of the Main Stand stood the South Bank.  A huge, (certainly for the lower divisions), Kop, one could imagine it full to capacity generating a fair degree of atmosphere and noise. 

Sadly, that evening it had but a smattering of paying guests.  Two thousand in a ground which could hold 35,000 tells its own tale.  But only 5 years previously Liverpool had visited in a cup-tie.  I remember that highlights of this game were on television, and if my memory isn’t fading it was played in a snowstorm, before over 31,000.  It would have been a bit different!!

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An impressive open terrace on the right. It was later converted to a double decker stand, with the land freed behind used for a housing development

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Tired it might have felt by 1984, but I liked it.  Barrel roofs on stands have always, in my opinion, added a bit of individuality, and at Roots Hall they certainly contributed to the overall feel.  (As an aside on my non-league travels in recent years one of my favourite ports of call has been the Northolme, Gainsborough, where what must be one of the few remaining stands of that type of construction still exists).

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On my first couple of visits this was standing. On later trips it was where visitors were stationed, and had by then been converted to seating

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379 days later and I was back.  Another mid-week game, and the trip helpfully funded by Tameside MBC, for whom I worked at the time.  Having been sent on a course around the Luton area, which conveniently finished at lunchtime on the day of the game, nothing could have been more convenient than a quick dash over to Essex, with petrol paid! There is one abiding memory of this Trip.  Years later County introduced a strap-line, probably during the years of Brendan Elwood’s chairmanship.  It proudly proclaimed County to be the “Friendly Football Club”.  Clearly that was for the future because that evening it was far from it.

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Known as a fire fighter for struggling Clubs, (something he was unquestionably to confirm a bare 18 months later when he was summoned back to a rock-bottom County struggling to avoid the drop in what was the first season of automatic relegation to the Conference), his first coming didn’t last very long as he disappeared to the Middle East after 14 league games. 

The game at Roots Hall was the ninth of a campaign, which had barely seen County turn out at Edgeley Park with various ground renovation works having to be completed.  The previous eight games had seen a haul of just 11 points, (three for a win by then), but had seen a new hero.  Murphy had brought in Paul Smith on loan from Sheffield United, and the new boy had hot the back of the net 5 times in his 7 starts.  But the bad news that evening was that Smith had been recalled back to the Steel City.  Quite where any goals were to come from was the concern of the handful of Hatters faithful who had made the trip

Gathered with a few of these faithful outside the players entrance an hour or so before the game I espied Chris Wych, who was the County physio.  Having grown up on the same street together I got into conversation with him, and suggested that given that the County following was few in number and that it was a fair way to come on a Tuesday evening then maybe the Club could distribute a few of the complimentary tickets that would be in the dressing room.  Chris agreed, but said that he’d have to go and get them and clear it with Murphy. 

A good 15 minutes passed before he emerged, but without comps in his hand.  He came over, and said, “I don’t quite know how to put this, but there aren’t any tickets for you.  The manager told me that that these are the words I’ve got to use and I quote, ‘If you’re ******* daft enough to come all this way on a Tuesday night to watch 4^th Division football then you can be ******* daft enough to pay.  So you can tell that lot that they’re having no tickets’”.

Well I suppose that’s telling you. Not yet the Friendly Club.  What a difference from a trip to Hartlepool later in the campaign.  Standing outside well before the game Tommy Sword came out, wandered over to me and noticing the County scarf said “Here’s a load of tickets.  Make sure that the regulars get them”.  Which I duly did.  It’s happened on a few occasions since then and I can tell you that the gesture is hugely appreciated, by one and all.

Roots Hall has never been a happy hunting ground.  Six visits and never triumphant.  The last was back in November 2012 for an FA Cup 1^st Round tie.  We had gone through a 4^th Qualifying Round match, (a 5-3 win over Stalybridge), to get this far.  It was our second season in the National League, (as now is), and it’s a game which Mark has always believed was the catalyst for the drop into the next level less than six months later. 

We lost 3-0 and were more than well beaten.  But prior to that 3 wins and a draw in the 5 preceding league games had given rise to a belief amongst the more rational, and less emotional, County followers that Gannon was beginning to assemble a decent team.  Indeed three days later Barrow were sent away from Edgeley on the end of a 3-0 reverse.  What followed was a poor run of four defeats and an exit from the FA Trophy at the hands of Southport. 

The last of these was at Woking where Lord Snape, then Chairman, seized the Pure Radio microphone and told the listening masses that he had had enough of Gannon, or words to that effect.  The full tale will be told when we reach Kingsfield on our travels, but Mark has strongly asserted since then that it was the beating at Southend which showed just how far off league two standard we were and that the defeat led to an irreversible loss of confidence, which when added to Snape’s outburst and the total an utter lack of football knowledge on the part of the power behind the throne, Spencer Fearn, has actually led to a lengthy stay at the sixth level of English football.  

73 days after the defeat at Southend, and 38 days after the Snape rant Gannon was gone.  The ludicrous Ryan McKnight arrived as Fearn’s henchman, bringing with him the incredibly bizarre appointment of Darije Kalezic.  The rest is history.

January 2017

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VISITS

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Day	Date	Competition	Tier / Round	Opponents	Res	F	A	Crowd	Away Day
Mon	17/09/84	Canon League Division 4	Tier 4	Southend United	D	1	1	2,004	99
Tues	01/10/85	Canon League Division 4	Tier 4	Southend United	D	0	0	3,854	121
Sat	11/10/08	Coca-Cola Football League – League 1	Tier 3	Southend United	D	1	1	7,125	613
Sat	01/05/10 (Highlights)	Coca-Cola Football League – League 1	Tier 3	Southend United	L	1	2	7,145	654
Sat	07/08/10	npower Football League – League 2	Tier 4	Southend United	D	1	1	5,589	655
Sat	03/11/12 (Highlights)	FA Cup	Round 1	Southend United	L	0	3	3,084	711

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ON MY JOURNEY WITH COUNTY AROUND 180 GROUNDS

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Previously – THE RACECOURSE Next stop – ANFIELD