For a relatively small club, in English football terms, there’s a huge amount of material available about County. I’ve referred to lots of this as I’ve been putting this site together. Where appropriate I’ve credited the source in the text. But I thought it would be useful to list them here as an easy point of reference.

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LISTENS

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57 years have provided some big highs and some real lows. But is hard to think of a more desperate time to be a County fan than the 8 years that date form the play-off win over Rochdale in 2008. It is hard, on reflection, to believe the epic scale of the mismanagement of the Club in that period.

There’s a series of podcasts available on The Scarf Bergara Wore which tell the whole sorry story, but take it back to a few years earlier when the Sale Sharks ‘takeover’ provided the catalyst for the grief to come. Involved in them are Phil Brennan, (Media Manager for most of that period); Dave Espley, (Tea Party Editor); Dave Schofield, (organiser of the famous march to the administrators office in late 2009 and ‘convenor’, but not part of the so called 2015 Group which took the Club out of admin), Nick Lee and Russ Johnson. They all had insight into what was going on in that period. The listens are jaw dropping and, for any County fan, well worth a few hours listening. You can find them here:

Dark Days Part 1 – Covers the period between 2005 and 2011; the Trust; Gannon’s rescue act in 2006; financial mismanagement; administration; Leonard Curtis; The March; 2015 Group

Dark Days Part 2 – It tells the tale of the first year of 2015 ownership; why County didn’t sign Jamie Vardy; the surreal behind the scenes decisions and a pledge to rebuild the club “from top to bottom”. Oh … and relegation out of the FL

Dark Days Part 3 – The Evans fiasco; Didi Hamman; Conference football

Dark Days Part 4 – The Fearn / Mcknight days of “blue skies thinking” and the descent into regional football

Dark Days Part 5 – Regional football; more McKnight; truly desperate times

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WATCHES

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There’s an absolute wealth of video available on You Tube which shows County over the years. Throughout this blog I’ve tried to link highlights of games that I went to – where I’ve been able to find them. Obviously, with the growth in video coverage in recent years, the output and indeed the quality has improved exponentially. But we should be grateful to those who have converted the old VHS tapes of goals and other highlights going back into the 1980’s – they are prime records! To list everything of interest would take a huge amount of space. But, for those interested in County, I commend the following channels:

Stockport County – the official Club channel with match coverage; interviews; archive footage and much more. In recent months much more archive footage has been uploaded, and there are many full games available.

StockportCounty1883 – independent of the Club, it has much archive footage, and collections of the Cup Run in 1996/97; a Striker series, (featuring Francis; Moore; Beckett; Pilkington; Dickinson; Proudlock; Jevons and Armstrong; the ‘Nine in a Row’ record breaking run; Goals of The Season and much more. Highly recommended for those who want to dip back into the past

Stockport County History – a short video using a lot of archive photographs which traces the history of the Club

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READS

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Researching for this site I have been indebted to the following books which have been on my bookshelf for many years. Whether or not they are still available I can only suggest a look on Amazon. If you can get hold of them then the wealth of information; statistics; and writings about the Club gives a real insight.

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There is a book yet to be written. The full tale of the disposal of the Club by Brendan Elwood; the advent of Cheshire Sports and the marginalisation of the Hatters; Trust ownership; administration; 2015 Group; Melrose, Evans and the other chancers; Fearn and McKnight; the cataclysmic fall into regional football and the slow climb to recovery leading to Mark Stott’s takeover. I have given a broad outline of this period on the “In Administration & Beyond: 2009-14” page as a ‘taster’. Anybody approaching a publisher with that as the framework would be laughed out of court as being beyond the realms of fiction. Sadly it was all true. It needs committing to public record as a travesty in a long history.