SUMMARY

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Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	Ave Att:
24	2	11	11	4,073

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This issue was for the Gillingham game on 13th March. The cover features Jemal Johnson, one of the six players brought in since the turn of the year. Ablett was trying desperately to improve matters but it was a sorry time. In 12 home games from the New Year to the end of the season we picked up 7 points. It was no better on the road – 11 games and 9 defeats and led to a relegation which had been inevitable for months

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NO END IN SIGHT TO ADMINISTRATION AND INEVITABLE RELEGATION

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Entering 2010 more attention was being paid to matters off the field as the Administration wended its weary way, although the supporters march before Christmas had led to promises of deal being struck by mid January. There’s plenty more about those times on the “In Administration 2009/10” pages.

We had lost 12 on the bounce before travelling up to Brunton Park in mid January. Adverse weather had resulted in no action for 3 weeks, after a home defeat at the hands of Leeds. We drew up at Carlisle, and then followed it with another point at home to Brighton. Matty McNeil’s brief return had ended, and Ablett turned to his contacts to try an bolster his more than fragile squad.

Paul Ince, at MK Dons, sent us Jemal Johnson and Jabo Ibehre on loan, and also released Danny Swailes and Richie Partridge to allow them to link up with the Hatters on short term permanent deals. Added to these was David Perkins, (on loan from Colchester). They made little impact on the results and a coup,e of weeks later Mat Sadler, (loan from Watford) came in together with a return on a short term deal for Paul Huntington, who had left Leeds after returning from his previous loan spell at EP.

Another loan signing made a decent impression, and it led to him spending the first half of 2010/11 with us. George Donnelly, who had an outstanding scoring record at Skelmersdale United in the Northern Premier League, had signed for Plymouth, but failed to feature at Home Park. He picked up 4 goals towards the tail end of the season.

At the same time there were far more regular appearances for youth products Greg Tansey and James Vincent. But it was less than poor fare for the paying punters. A grand total of 10 points from the 22 games after the turn of the year, led to the inevitable relegation. It was confirmed as we went down to a home defeat to Yeovil on 10th April, (the 13th reverse of the season at EP, and there were 2 more yet to come). It had taken just two years from that day at Wembley to see the Club brought to its knees. On the field we finished with 25 points, (and only 5 wins), and ended up 18 points adrift of next to bottom Southend, and a massive 26 points from safety.

Off the field affairs left Ablett with an impossible task. I will never, ever criticise him for that relegation – it was an inevitability given the hand he was dealt. With the take over occurring in the weeks following the end of the season, a parting of the ways with Ablett arrived.

It was his one and only experience of management in the FL – tragically he passed away at the far too early age of 46, less than two years after leaving EP.

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NEW OWNERS; NEW MANAGER BUT NO VARDY

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The epic tale of Administration was concluded, (see “In Administration – Part 4”); Ablett had departed, but who was to be the new supremo? In 12 months Gannon had been made redundant at County; been sacked at Motherwell and had spent a couple of months at Peterborough, where he turned down a 4 year contract, with his family still based in Stockport purportedly being a key factor. he was available and all the gossip, (both informed and otherwise), thought him to be a ‘shoe-in’ to return to the Park.

The guys on the “The Scarf Bergara Wore” podcast go into the events both on and off the field during the summer of 2010. They are well worth a listen, and in particular the Dark Days Part 2 episode addresses all of this stuff.

As the weeks went by there was no confirmation of Gannon’s return, but Peter Ward and Alan Lord, who had followed him to Motherwell, had been taken on to supervise pre-season training. With an absolute dearth of players still contracted Ward and Lord has identified a number of targets. Dark Days Part 2, aided largely by Phil Brennan’s recollections, describes in detail how events unfolded. Twenty four days before the season, Paul Simpson was announced as Manager. Apparently, he took one look at the potential target list, and erased on it from the white board on which the names had been written. Listen to the podcast – Jamie Vardy, (then at Stocksbridge), was one of the names, and by all accounts a deal wasn’t too far off. That was annulled, and instead we got Barry Conlon…….

By the time the opening game at Roots Hall came round there were a series of new faces. (Strangely it was 2 trips in a row to Southend, having been down there for the last away game of the 2009/10 campaign). It’s reasonable to say that not too many of them were known. The new regime at EP had also managed to get the Council on board, as a “Stockport MBC” logo was emblazoned on the shirt for the season. It had been a long time coming – only 6 months or so previously Council leader Dave Goddard seemed implacably opposed to lending any support to the Club.

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AS AT 31ST DECEMBER: 21 GAMES; 23 POINTS; 27 PLAYERS!!

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The new faces that appeared at Roots Hall were Mansour Assoumani, (a centre back from Wrexham); Mark Lynch, (from Rotherham, but who had previously appeared in a Champions League game for Manchester United); Robbie Williams, (full back from Huddersfield); and the afore-mentioned Barry Conlon. We were his 14th, (and as it turned out his last), FL club. His performances in a County shirt defied any belief that he had managed to maintain such a long career. He failed to hit the target in his 6 (+3), appearances, with his County ‘career’ ending in ignominy as he picked up a long driving ban for drink driving. We could have had Vardy……

George Donnelly; Mansour Assoumani; Barry Conlon; Jordan Rose & Mark Lynch. Rose had signed from Weymouth, but we didn’t see him until mid October. He left to go back down south at the end of the season but re-appeared again in the first Conference campaign.

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By the beginning of October things weren’t looking too bad. Nothing sensational, but only 3 defeats in 10 games, sadly only two victories, but the thumpings we had experienced the previous season had disappeared. Matty Mainwaring had returned from his long-term injury; Simpson had brought in his son Jake, and Anthony Pulis came in on-loan from Souhtampton. He made his debut at Gillingham, (where he scored), and County fans had the company on the open end at Priestfield of his father Tony. All credit to him, paying to get in, or maybe he was persona non grata in the Gillingham boardroom after being sacked as manager there for gross misconduct and then getting a substantial out of court settlement from them for unpaid bonuses!

There were only 3 more wins prior to the New Year, the last of which was on a freezing cold day at Underhill just after Christmas. At that point we were 18th, admittedly only 4 points above the drop into non-league, but still only 7 points off the play-off spots. After the travails of the previous 18 months, there appeared to a degree of stability, and for that County fans were glad. Little did we know that the following 4 months would see 3 managers, (and ludicrously one game, away at Accrington, where on paper there was no-one in charge of the team); another 11 new faces on the field; and a Board room which to all observers looked to be in complete disarray. All the expectation of the summer about a new start for the Club had dissipated.

2011 was to be a dreadful year. Relegation into non-league, with a league membership of 106 years ending; another 2 Managers to make it 5 in a year, and a recognition that escaping from the Conference could be done in two ways, and that for a large part of the season the second of these, a descent into regional football, was a distinct possibility. Could it possibly get any worse? We now know, with the benefit of hindsight, and the experience of the last few years, that the answer to that was an unqualified “yes”.

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Back to 2009 Forward to 2011 Home Games Summary Page Away Games 2010

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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
Tue	19/01/10 (Highlights)	Coca-Cola Football League – League 1	Tier 3	Swindon Town	L	0	1	3,281	858
Tue	26/01/10 (Highlights)	Coca-Cola Football League – League 1	Tier 3	Brighton & Hove Albion	D	1	1	3,636	859
Sat	06/02/10	Coca-Cola Football League – League 1	Tier 3	Milton Keynes Dons	L	1	3	3,720	860
Sat	13/02/10	Coca-Cola Football League – League 1	Tier 3	Colchester United	D	2	2	3,642	861
Sat	27/02/10	Coca-Cola Football League – League 1	Tier 3	Wycombe Wanderers	W	4	3	3,740	862
Sat	13/03/10 (Highlights)	Coca-Cola Football League – League 1	Tier 3	Gillingham	D	0	0	3,894	863
Tue	16/03/10	Coca-Cola Football League – League 1	Tier 3	Oldham Athletic	L	0	1	4,283	864
Sat	20/03/10	Coca-Cola Football League – League 1	Tier 3	Brentford	L	0	1	3,707	865
Sat	03/04/10	Coca-Cola Football League – League 1	Tier 3	Walsall	D	1	1	3,580	866
Sat	10/04/10	Coca-Cola Football League – League 1	Tier 3	Yeovil Town	L	1	3	3,587	867
Sat	24/04/10 (Highlights)	Coca-Cola Football League – League 1	Tier 3	Huddersfield Town	L	0	6	6,887	868
Sat	08/05/10 (Highlights)	Coca-Cola Football League – League 1	Tier 3	Tranmere Rovers	L	0	3	7,208	869
Tue	10/08/10 (Highlights)	Carling Cup	Round 1	Preston North End	L	0	5	3,724	870
Sat	14/08/10	npower Football League – League 2	Tier 4	Wycombe Wanderers	D	0	0	3,837	871
Sat	28/08/10 (Highlights)	npower Football League – League 2	Tier 4	Shrewsbury Town	L	0	4	4,350	872
Sat	11/09/10 (Highlights)	npower Football League – League 2	Tier 4	Bradford City	D	1	1	4,277	873
Sat	25/09/10 (Highlights)	npower Football League – League 2	Tier 4	Aldershot Town	D	2	2	4,231	874
Tue	28/09/10	npower Football League – League 2	Tier 4	Accrington Stanley	D	2	2	3,584	875
Sat	16/10/10	npower Football League – League 2	Tier 4	Barnet	W	2	1	4,177	876
Sat	30/10/10 (Highlights)	npower Football League – League 2	Tier 4	Hereford United	L	0	5	4,017	877
Sat	06/11/10 (Highlights)	FA Cup	Round 1	Peterborough United	D	1	1	2,001	878
Sat	20/11/10	npower Football League – League 2	Tier 4	Torquay United	D	1	1	3,772	879
Tue	23/11/10	npower Football League – League 2	Tier 4	Port Vale	L	0	5	4,571	880
Sat	11/12/10	npower Football League – League 2	Tier 4	Crewe Alexandra	D	3	3	4,036	881