SUMMARY

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Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	Ave Att:
25	8	6	11	5,249

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This issue is for the Brighton game, (28/2/04). It was the last season that the Nationwide logo appeared as they stopped their sponsorship. This was a blow to me – one of the business relationships I had at the time was with Nationwide, and it led to a few away matches in the comfort of corporate hospitality. Vicarage Road and Highfield Road are particular memories.

Andy Welsh is on the front cover. A product of the County youth set-up, and a player with far more ability than the scandalously low fee of £15,000 that was eventually received when he moved to Sunderland.

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LATE RUN ENSURES SURVIVAL

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The year opened with a win over Wycombe, but that was about it for weeks on end. A further 9, winless, games followed, leaving us next to bottom, propped up only by the Adams Park outfit. McIlroy went searching for players and returned with yet another keeper, the 4th of the season, following Nick Colgan, (who returned to Hibernian after his loan spell ended and was promptly transferred to Barnsley). The others had been James Spencer and Boaz Myhill. The new “no. 1” was Anthony Williams, on loan from Hartlepool, who made County the 9th club of his career, which by then had only totalled around 140 games. There was a love hate relationship with the crowd in his 15 game spell. (Williams was the 11th keeper we had seen in just three seasons, surely an indication of the weakness of the defence over that period)

McIlroy also brought in Dave Walton, a centre back with lots of experience at Shrewsbury and Crewe but had failed to make much of an impression after moving to the Baseball Ground the previous summer. Joining them was Lee Cartwright, a winger from Preston. There was a distinct improvement. An unbeaten run of 10 games, including 6 wins, (with 6 goals for Ricky Lambert who gave us some indication of the scoring prowess we should see at a higher level in years to come), elevated us to a final placing of 19th and survival by 3 points. It had been another depressing season. There had been 52 games; I had seen 46, (missing out only late season long distance trips to places like QPR and Bournemouth) – it had been hard labour.

There’s a really good video charting the games which saw us preserve our status on the StockportCounty1883 You Tube channel. Check it out below

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Surely this depressing run which now stretched to four and half seasons would come to an end. If it was to, then McIlroy would have to spend the summer looking to rebuild a team. The players he had, good though some of them were, were clearly not functioning as a team.

The one positive from the season that had just finished was the emergence of Ashley Williams in the last few games. It was our first sighting of someone who was key to the side that Gannon built from 2006 onwards, and who was, of course, to go on to have an outstanding career. Luke Beckett had also returned, after a long term injury. These two would surely be key parts of the team for 2004/05.

But before then there was another tour to China, following the earlier trip three years previously. It led to the renaming of a Chinese club to ‘Stockport Tiger Star’, with County having some element of ownership. Suffice it to say that the relationship wasn’t long lived…..

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NEW FACES BUT NO PROGRESS

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The new season dawned. We were now in Division 1, (not by dint of promotion of course but the renaming of the Second Tier as the Championship), we needed to get familiarity with some new faces. Another keeper, (!), this time Neil Cutler. Watching the first Premier League game after the Covid break I note that he was on the bench at Villa Park as keeping coach. I trust that his teaching skills are an improvement on his practical aptitude. He was to end the year with catastrophic mistakes in each of 3 games over a couple of weeks period. From Swansea; to Barnsley and then back down to Torquay we were left holding our heads in our hands.

We were also introduced to Lee Mair, (quickly nicknamed ‘Night’); Danny Adams, a left back, (who incurred the Cheadle End wrath by wearing a City jacket on one occasion he didn’t play); Mark Robertson; Mark Bridge-Wilkinson, and Warren Feeney. Money was involved in the Feeney deal – we paid £45,000 for him, and if truth’s known he was the only one who made any kind of meaningful, positive impact at EP. The other in-comer was Derek Geary. He arrived from Sheffield Wednesday, played 13 games, and the left. There was always a suspicion that the move to County was one of convenience, because his next club was Sheffield United, and it quite possibly wasn’t the done thing to move directly from one Sheffield club to the other – there needed to be something in-between.

Whatever the case the opening day defeat to Huddersfield was the pre-cursor to a desperate time. Six new faces had made no difference to the form. McIlroy looked clueless as we struggled to pick up 3 points from the first 12 games, and exited the League Cup at the same time. The temporary respite of a win over Peterborough was but brief as the next 5 league games brought just one point. In the interim Beckett had moved on to Sheffield United for £50,000.

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OWNERSHIP BUT WITHOUT A GROUND (OR CASH)

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All this had unfolded as there was yet another change of ownership. It was a deal cast in the madhouse. Kennedy had offered ownership of the Club to the Supporters Trust.

An article on a website “Two Hundred Percent”, (which now – March 2024 – seems to have disappeared off the web), summarised things perfectly. “Supporters’ Trusts had a decent track record of crisis management at lower-league and non-league level, although the movement’s many detractors saw this as the ownership model’s limit. However, the Stockport Trust did things in reverse order, signing a takeover deal which precipitated a crisis to manage“.

When I use the phrase, “ownership of the Club”, it may convey significantly more than it actually meant. To me the “Club” is a totality of team; ground and the associated cash-flows that come from that, (both incoming and outgoing). The deal that was struck was nothing like that – in reality it was no more than transferring the licence, (or whatever it is), to play in the Football League. Kennedy had annexed the ground, splitting it from the Club, (which was supposed under his deal with Elwood to be in the Cheshire Sports family). It was a crucial move.

The Club accounts for the ear ended 30th June 2004, which became available at Companies House in March 2005, tell it all. Tucked away as a note to the accounts is the following statement:

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As a part of the Group’s financing plan, the Company’s property; plant and machinery and the majority of its fixtures and fittings were transferred to its holding company, Cheshire Sport Promotions Limited during the year for the proceeds of £3,800,000 which was the open market existing use valuation of independent valuers Dunlop Heywood Lorenz.

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The book value of its assets were reduced at the stroke of a pen from £4,058m to £100k. At the same time the amount owed to Brendan Elwood, (£3.773m – conveniently, some might suggest, not un-adjacent to the value), was transferred to Cheshire Sport, so the Club did not benefit in terms of cash from the sale of its ground!! Completely legal, but an accounting artifice. With this transaction the Club was effectively unsustainable.

Elwood would later claim, “I would never have sold the club to Mr Kennedy if I had known he would break our agreement by keeping the club separate from the rugby outfit.” 

So it was a club which did not own, or frankly in any way, control the ground. But it went further than that. The revenue generating operations in the Cheadle End hospitality facilities were Kennedy’s as well, and to put the icing on the cake he would receive a proportion of future transfer fees.

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“WE WANT TO OWN OUR CLUB…WE WANT TO OWN OUR CLUB”

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When the structure of the proposed deal came between Kennedy and the Trust came out I was dumbfounded. For the last 20 years or so of my working life I was responsible for controlling the finances of a business turning over in excess of £200m pa. I simply couldn’t see how this could work – there were simply no revenue streams to underpin the business. And I also knew that Kennedy was more than sharp and had effectively disposed of a significant proportion of Cheshire Sports costs while retaining an equally significant proportion of the income. I also remained unconvinced that the individuals fronting this had the abilities required to run a football club on a day to day basis, and especially one which was going to face a real challenge from a financial perspective.

There was a meeting held in the Cheadle End hospitality suites, notionally to get the Trust membership to consider and vote on the proposed takeover. I say ‘notionally’ because to me it felt like a done deal. It was like a group of banshees wailing, “We want to own our Club”. There were a couple of dissenting voices, who talked about the practicalities and the deal itself. I was one, but we were howled down. “We want to own our Club”, “We want to own our Club”. The die was cast, and the route to regional football was effectively planned. Madness.

I looked at the top table, well meaning individuals one and all with County in their soul. But they simply weren’t up to the job. It would have tested a proven management team, with legal; financial and organisational skills, and they simply weren’t present. Some people might suggest that they did well – after all promotion was achieved in 2008. But it was a promotion built on financial sand, and so it proved.

Whilst the deal wasn’t completed until the following summer, the go-ahead had been given, and the die was effectively cast. The impact of it would unfold over the next 5 years, and result in a cataclysmic ending with administration in 2009, the full details of which are described on “In Administration and Beyond”.

The reaction amongst the attendees was one that I saw in later years. A blind acceptance of promises that could never ever be fulfilled. I recall particularly the ‘unthinking’ in 2011 when Evans was striding around. The Yellow Board full of stuff like “I’ve been on Twitter and Tony’s told me this”. Or full of praise for Young on his appointment when anybody who spared 5 minutes to look on the web could see that Young was just a short termist, relying on changing players weekly, with no concept of a long term plan. But I will say, nobody was taken in by McKnight – he was beyond the bounds of credibility!!

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McILROY OUT … TURNER IN

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The defeat at Doncaster saw McIlroy axed. We were rock bottom, and the relegation which had threatened us the previous year now looked odds-on. McIlroy had been at the helm for 13 months. It had produced 14 wins from 58 games in all competitions. Arguably Kennedy had given him something to work with, but it simply didn’t bring any product.

Mark Lillis, his assistant, was put in temporary charge. He had six games, two of which were an FA Cup tie with Swansea, (and the consequent replay). I went to the replay. In summary 467 miles; 8 and a half hours driving; a goal of the decade from Danny Griffin, and an horrendous mistake from Cutler which cost us the tie. More about that on the Vetch Field post.

The last game of Lillis’ reign, (a win over MK Dons), was a milestone. We knew by then that Chris Turner was to replace him, but it also marked, not only the rarity of a win, but also the first home game I had missed since Wolves, 18 years previously. An unmissable, (from duty rather than pleasure I will add), business function in London kept me away. I’d done 491 home games ‘on the bounce’ so it was a real disappointment. Looking back through my records until February 2018, (when the initial stages of chemo were taking their toll), I missed only 3 out of the next 307. That makes 4 home games missed out of 798 spread over 32 years. Loyalty or madness – that depends on where you are sitting in my house. My wife’s chair or mine!!

Turner took formal charge in a Boxing Day home defeat at the hands of Bristol. The year ended in a 3-3 draw at Oakwell, which featured another calamity from Cutler. The only certainty was that there was an 8 point gap to safety, with 22 games left. Turner had to be a miracle worker. The New Year showed him to be anything but…

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Back to 2003 Forward to 2005 Home Games Summary Page Away Games 2004

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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
Sat	10/01/04	Nationwide Football League – Division 2	Tier 3	Wycombe Wanderers	W	2	0	4,406	708
Sat	24/01/04	Nationwide Football League – Division 2	Tier 3	Plymouth Argyle	L	0	2	6,608	709
Sat	31/01/04	Nationwide Football League – Division 2	Tier 3	Peterborough United	D	2	2	4,653	710
Sat	14/02/04 (Highlights)	Nationwide Football League – Division 2	Tier 3	Swindon Town	L	2	4	4,833	711
Sat	28/02/04	Nationwide Football League – Division 2	Tier 3	Brighton & Hove Albion	D	1	1	5,038	712
Sat	06/03/04 (Highlights)	Nationwide Football League – Division 2	Tier 3	Bristol City	W	2	0	5,050	713
Sat	20/03/04 (Highlights)	Nationwide Football League – Division 2	Tier 3	Sheffield Wednesday	W	1	0	8,011	714
Sat	03/04/04 (Highlights)	Nationwide Football League – Division 2	Tier 3	Rushden & Diamonds	W	2	1	4,717	715
Mon	12/04/04 (Highlights)	Nationwide Football League – Division 2	Tier 3	Oldham Athletic	D	1	1	8,617	716
Sat	24/04/04 (Highlights)	Nationwide Football League – Division 2	Tier 3	Grimsby Town	W	2	1	5,924	717
Sat	08/05/04	Nationwide Football League – Division 2	Tier 3	Barnsley	L	2	3	6,581	718
Sat	07/08/04 (Highlights)	Coca-Cola Football League – League 1	Tier 3	Huddersfield Town	L	2	3	7,473	719
Sat	21/08/04	Coca-Cola Football League – League 1	Tier 3	Bradford City	L	0	1	5,338	720
Mon	30/08/04	Coca-Cola Football League – League 1	Tier 3	Tranmere Rovers	D	1	1	5,502	721
Sat	04/09/04	Coca-Cola Football League – League 1	Tier 3	Torquay United	L	0	2	4,372	722
Sat	18/09/04	Coca-Cola Football League – League 1	Tier 3	Luton Town	L	1	3	5,128	723
Tue	28/09/04	LDV Vans Trophy	Northern Round 1	Bury	W	3	1	1,416	724
Sat	02/10/04 (Highlights)	Coca-Cola Football League – League 1	Tier 3	Swindon Town	D	3	3	4,394	725
Sat	16/10/04	Coca-Cola Football League – League 1	Tier 3	Peterborough United	W	1	0	4,119	726
Sat	30/10/04	Coca-Cola Football League – League 1	Tier 3	Oldham Athletic	L	1	2	6,146	727
Sat	06/11/04	Coca-Cola Football League – League 1	Tier 3	Sheffield Wednesday	L	0	3	7,222	728
Sat	13/11/04	FA Cup	Round 1	Huddersfield Town	W	3	1	3,479	729
Sat	27/11/04	Coca-Cola Football League – League 1	Tier 3	Walsall	L	0	1	4,448	730
Sat	04/12/04	FA Cup	Round 2	Swansea City	D	0	0	2,680	731
Sun	26/12/04	Coca-Cola Football League – League 1	Tier 3	Bristol City	L	1	2	5,071	732