Jan 2013
THE LORD'S PRAYER
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| Alan Lord |
Football…bloody hell.
It's the phrase that keeps bouncing around in my head this week after, well, lets just say one of the more feature-packed seven days in this club’s recent history.
We all know what's happened. Some disagree with it. Some don't. That's football isn't it? A national game with a million experts. It divides us and yet brings us together. We’re never going to all believe the same thing.
One man’s sub-par performance is another’s illustration of potential. It's about perspective. An angle of view.
And none of us watch the dynamics of this game unfold in the same way. Our interpretations of it are all skewed by personal opinion.
Occasionally there is a consensus. But it is rare that those in seeming agreement have the same reasons for their forcefully-held views.
Here’s two things most inside the stadium today will find it difficult to disagree with as our team walks out and prepares to take on Forest Green Rovers.
Firstly, Alan Lord has his work seriously cut-out today. Second, there isn't a single soul inside Edgeley Park who'd not give their right arm to trade places with Forest Green right now, even allowing for their frankly hideous Piccalilli-kit.
If we needed a temper for our expectations as fans this season it was provided this week, wasn't it?
And that famous quote which kicked this article off couldn't ever have been more suitable.
But lets look at a few priorities shall we? Determine what, as fans, we should be concerning ourselves with from this weekend onwards.
Starting with this afternoon I'd say the most positive action we can take is to get right behind Alan Lord and the boys in blue – these young men who, if they ever felt they had a responsibility to prove their worth, need to show it for 90 minutes by truly bringing their A-game today.
It may well feel like we’re the long-suffering ginger step kid of a particularly offensive parent right now.
We’ve all read and taken part in the mass out-pouring of emotion on the forums and Facebook in the last few days.
It's been a difficult week hasn't it? Saying goodbye to a hero is never easy. The temptation to shout “Shane” in the hope of one last hurrah is there in all of us.
We may disagree vehemently with the big decision that has been made this week. But the need to focus on the right now and the future has never been more compelling.
I can't criticise those who have decided to stay away today. They have their reasons and, lord knows, they've been through far more as supporters of this club than a newbie like myself can possibly imagine.
But what I can say, and say with some degree of conviction is this. this team, this club needs its supporters to rally behind this team now as much as it ever has.
My position is as follows. I believe the team has under-performed this season. They've not achieved what Jim Gannon or anyone else connected with the club expected of them.
It's no use pointing the finger at this stage. It's too easy to apportion blame without possession of the full facts. And, frankly, it will achieve nothing now, will it?
So what can we do? It's a common theme I've heard regurgitated time and again by football fans across this country that they have no or little power within the walls of the club to which they pay loyal regular patronage and a not insignificant amount of their hard-earned.
But it's pointless concentrating on what we don't have. Instead isn't it better to look at what we can do, what we do have, and how we can use it to best effect.
Regardless of what we believe and who we believe is responsible, none of us wants to see this team relegated do we?
We all crave survival and a decent crack at a return to the promised land of the Football League.
We, as fans, have a role to play in that dream. Supporting the team. Simple but effective support.
I'll be adding my voice, to the Pop Side choir today, hoping that my support can help the Edgeley chorus become far more than the sum of its parts.
If it helps in just a tiny way to improve on-field events, the very events that may just, if things go our way, secure a palatable future, then it will have been worth every ounce of the effort.
End
Jan 2013
OUR LORD, WHO ART IN EDGELEY, HALLOWED BE THY NAME
Every great leader has a great right hand man.
A man of unswerving loyalty who shuns the spotlight, happy to beaver away in his area of expertise out of the focus of public examination and the glimmer of adoration.
Alexander the Great had Parmenio.
Parmenio survived three major rounds of executions among the Macedonian nobility, each linked to a different attempt to put a new king on the throne.
He was renowned as a wily politician as much as he was a successful general. His relationship with Alexander was strong – a sage among the famous warrior’s inner circle.
He was regarded as the most loyal supporter and advisor of the young king and, according to historians, Alexander’s legend would never have reached such dizzy heights had it not been for the experienced hand of his most trusted advisor.
Jim Gannon’s Parmenio is Alan Lord.
It was Alan Lord’s hard work, keen eye for a potential star, that uncovered much of the nursery talent now blooming in the Stockport County first team.
Alan Lord may just be one of the greatest football midwives the professional game has seen.
But he doesn't give interviews readily.
As is often the case with these behind-the-scenes men of mystery, quietly pulling the strings away from the floodlights and the media is where they excel. Most are terrified of the bright dazzle of the public spotlight – like rabbits in the headlights.
Alan Lord is no rabbit, though.
I’m told getting an interview on paper from Jim Gannon’s most trusted lieutenant would be the journalistic equivalent of discovering rocking horse shit at Hamleys. Ain't never gonna happen.
But all it took was a phone call. The myth he may have been some kind of footballing scarlet pimpernel turned out to be hogwash.
And he comes to the table equipped with a message any Stockport County fan – worried by the recent slump in form of this young team – will be glad to hear.
“The word ’relegation’ just isn’t in our vocabulary. Yes, we’ve had a few bad results. But, We are on course for a mid-table finish. Exactly what we thought would happen at the start of the season,” he says so matter-of-factly you'd swear he could see into the future.
And maybe he can.
There aren't many who have the foresight to spot that raw talent, that potential in a young man to develop physically and psychologically into a fully-grown, fully-rounded professional footballer.
Being a pro isn't just a matter of being equipped with a certain set of footballing skills. That's a bottom line sum, a foundation. At best.
As far as Alan Lord is concerned, being blessed with exquisite skill on the green baize of Edgeley Park, is just a starting point.
Any idiot can play football.
But it takes a certain strength of mind, a willingness to be guided down a well-planned path to maturity, to become a professional footballer at Stockport County.
There's no place at Edgeley Park for glory-men – the social loafers who feasted on a dying beast over the last few seasons have largely been shipped out.
And Alan Lord sees a brighter future for the club as a result.
“We knew full well that we would have lots of ups and downs with a young, inexperienced team.
“But, as I said, in terms of this season, we are still on target to achieve mid-table plus by the end of the season.
“But do we fear relegation? Without being complacent, definitely not.
“We feel we have more than enough in the squad.”
Alan Lord, like his manager, is not prepared to rest on his laurels however.
And though he takes the opportunity to talk up some of the young stars currently developing at pace in front of an expectant crowd inside Edgeley Park week in week out, he says January will see movement as new players join the County ranks and some squad members depart.
“We will definitely see some comings and goings in January,” he says.
“Some players may have to go back to their clubs and, we have contingency plans, targets in mind, should that happen.
“There's lots that could happen between now and then, of course. A number of potential eventualities. But we have it covered. There are some we’d really like to keep.
“There are also some targets we’d really like to bring in during the transfer window. We have got our eyes focused on recruitment though, should we need it.”
As for those who remain, as far as Lord is concerned, they all – each and every one of them, regardless of whether they are currently enjoying first team playing time or not – have the opportunity to prove they are worth their place in the squad.
“There are no black sheep here. Everyone has the same chance to prove they are worth the shirt. Our preparation for the next game starts the minute the final whistle goes. Every player has Monday to Friday to show they are worthy of consideration for the team. If they don't tick all the boxes during training then they are not going to make the team. It's that simple.
“But, as far as we are concerned, no bridges have been burned. There's still every chance for every player in the squad to make their mark.”
An olive branch to those who may think the door to the staff entrance at Edgeley Park has already shut?
Quite possibly.
For those among the faithful who may have, naturally, suffered a dip in their belief over the last few weeks, Lord has a message, a reminder of where the club is in terms of its development.
“We have a two to three year development plan for the club – the structure, playing system and the group of players that pull on that blue shirt.
“It was always the plan to build a strong base this season and extend that into an exciting squad the following season. We are well down that path. On course. Where we expected we old be at this stage.
“All the players we bring in here are brought in for a specific reason. They all have the potential to grow into the kind of players, be part of the kind of team we know will bring back league football to this club.”
That faith is not based on guess-work, on blind faith but on hour after hour of watching players blossom from young boys into promising teenagers and, in the cases of the few who make it through to pro-contracts, the absolute knowledge that they have what it takes to make their mark in the royal blue and white.
Lord happily singles out a handful of our current crop of youngsters for praise and admits some have even surprised the management with the rate of their development.
“Jordan Fagbola has been one whose quick rise and rapid progression we didn't anticipate happening quite as quickly as it has. He already has aerial prowess, strength on the ball and versatility – so much to offer – and he's still just 18.
“Alex Kenyon is a player I have worked with for the last three seasons and he just gets better and better. He epitomises the strength of character we need at this club. There's no-one else I'd rather have in the team when it comes to his energy rate and his sheer will to scrap for loose balls and lost causes.
“Connor Jennings is one who has been on our radar for some time – before he signed for Scunthorpe. When he was made available by Scunthorpe it was a no brainier to go and get him in here. He knows the area, the club and a number of the players. And he has already proved that while he is here he is a valuable asset. Depending on other criteria we may be able to extend his stay. We don't know yet but, if all goes well, we’ll be only too happy to keep him.”
But Lord reserves special praise for a player who has yet to get a sustained run in the team.
Unfortunately for this bright, young thing, injury has curtailed his involvement thus far this season. Not for much longer though.
Alan Lord believes Stockport County may soon be able to unleash a player at Edgeley Park who will explode when he finally arrives as a first team regular.
“Alex Meaney is a talent that will light up Edgeley Park,” Lord tells me.
“He has got unbelievable skill. He will truly excite the club and the fans and when he gets into the team he will set this league on fire.
“Meaney has the best range of passing I have ever seen in a player of his age. He is one in reserve at the moment but I have no reservations about him whatsoever. It will happen for him this season. His operation has been successful and I expect to see him in contention in about four or five weeks.”
The team being assembled at Edgeley Park, each and every player, is acutely aware of what it means to be a Stockport County player.
Lord says: “The fans at Edgeley Park are absolutely different class. It makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up whenever we walk out onto the pitch on match day.
“I promise what we are putting together here is a team for the fans – we are creating a similar team to the Rowe, Dicko era and we feel the group of players we are assembling will become more than capable of matching that.
“We have said all along that we want to parade a team out there that the fans are proud of – which is what they deserve.”
End
Oct 2012
FRANK SPENCER TALKS TURKEY
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| Spencer Fearn |
“Football is full of people who promise the earth and deliver nothing,” says Spencer Fearn matter-of-factly as we review his first six months at Stockport County.
A thinly-veiled barb at previous Edgeley Park regimes?
Quite possibly.
Spencer Fearn speaks frankly. He doesn’t tend to mince his words, even when those words are in danger of stirring infamously precious football egos into something resembling consciousness.
Just a few days after he was appointed Vice Chairman at Edgeley Park, the hugely successful Sheffield businessman and self-confessed football nut says he is not about to start making false promises he can’t keep.
Stockport County has consumed his every waking hour since he became the largest shareholder on the board in January this year – and overnight revived the fatally flagging financial fortunes of a club teetering precariously on the brink of a catastrophic cash implosion.
“If we hadn’t come in and put the money in that we did, when we did, the club wouldn’t have survived,” he says without the even the tiniest hint of embellishment.
That’s no idle boast; no throwaway, attention-grabbing, soundbite from some dodgy car-dealing opportunist hoping to advance his own personal credentials while snacking on the carcass of a once proud but slowly rotting beast.
No. It’s stone cold, indisputable fact. Without Spencer Fearn, there would be no Stockport County. Certainly not as we know it today.
Fearn is a realist. He knows the task that lies in front of him. But, like so many others who have happened by Edgeley Park in recent years, he came here and discovered a “real football club with proper fans and a proper football ground”.
He was immediately smitten.
He knew he could help. His business acumen is honed on the back of season after season of success in the financial big leagues.
So while he was bitten by the County bug and, by his own admission, “fell in love” with this incredible club, his business sense told him it was not only eminently salvageable but, with the right kind of guidance, this ship could be steered back to safer, more prosperous and, potentially, glory-filled waters.
It was a challenge he couldn’t refuse. For the love of football he couldn’t turn his back. Thank the lord for that.
He’s not so blinded by his new love for Stockport County that he doesn’t see the chinks in the armour though.
“It is a fantastic club,” he says. “It is an absolute honour to be appointed as Vice Chairman.
“We have lots of very real plans for the future. Plans that for a number of reasons I can’t go into too much detail about now – they’re commercially sensitive – but I am in talks about very real financial opportunities that can genuinely help this club with many different parties several times a day, every day of the week.”
The first of those plans is to complete the deal to sort out Stockport County’s lease of Edgeley Park. That deal, with Cheshire Sports – owner’s of Sale Sharks rugby union club and Edgeley Park, where Sharks have ground-shared with County for the last nine years – is being worked on.
Fearn says he is confident the deal should be completed soon. The agreement – not yet, at any rate – won’t see County once again become owners of their own ground but will provide an affordable lease which Fearn sees as a foundation for the club to use to go forward both football-wise and financially.
“I have spent hours reading up on the laws governing leases, every last little clause which we could use in our favour has been examined. All I can say is that we have done lots of negotiating with Cheshire Sports. We are doing the very best we can for this club.”
Fearn is delighted with the financial progress made so far.
A good example of his thriftiness was his decision to ditch the club’s kit deal immediately he first saw the detail in the fine print.
“We were recently paid for quarter three and quarter four of the old kit deal, as it happens,” he tells me.
“Do you know how much cash we saw from the profits on those two quarters on that deal? The sum total of £170. That’s why we had to get out of that deal as soon as we could.”
Spencer Fearn is a football fan. He thinks like a football fan, dreams like a football fan and consumes the tiniest detail of every cough, burp and splutter that happens in and around Edgeley Park just like a Cheadle Ender.
He understands what makes the fans tick. He understands that after years of broken promises there was natural suspicion among the County faithful when he rode into town like a modern-day white knight with a cheque book and pen.
“Our fans make this club. They are not communicated with often enough. They have every right to ask questions about how their club is being run. They pay everyone’s wages here” he says bluntly.
“We need to speak to them more than we do. We all realise that and we’ve pledged to improve those communication channels and listen to their ideas and opinions.
“Our fans are grafting hard at work all week and they pay their money to come and watch this club so they have every right to express their opinion.
“But I’m not going to stand here and be one of those people who says we will be in the Premiership in five years because everyone knows that is bollocks.
“The fans are not stupid. They want to know that day to day we are working hard doing the right things to make this club run better.
“We have a lot of things lined up, things I can’t talk about in detail right now. There are people, companies, who were involved with Stockport County in the past who will come back to the club and work with us again soon.
“But we need to get the lease deal completed first and foremost and then we can talk about that.”
Once the lease deal is done, Fearn’s priority is to put County back in the Football League.
“Jim Gannon is the man to do that,” he says. “I have never worked with someone who invests so much time, energy and understanding into his players as Jim Gannon. When it comes to what he knows abut football management there’s no-one else I’d rather have at this club.”
Off the pitch, Fearn has lots of plans to provide the extra cash which could really make a difference to the team’s fortunes.
“Look, we’re not in a position to compete with Luton Town and their £1 million budget,” he says “But I will say right now – we put in a six figure sum when we came to this club and I did the same again at the start of this season.
“After what has happened at this club in the past no-one will give us an overdraft so we have no choice but to live well within our means. We are trying numerous ways to raise extra funds to improve playing budget to give the team the best chance we can.
“We need an attendance of 3,200 at every home game to break even this coming season. But if we could manage to pull crowds of 4,000 to every home game that would provide us with an additional £170,000 on top of our existing budget which would make us very competitive at this level.”
The final piece in the off-field County jigsaw is the new Chief Executive, who is scheduled to take up his position at Edgeley Park at the end of this month.
“I can’t name names because he is still working his notice elsewhere,” Fearn tells me. “But he is not someone who will be on the radar of County fans.
“He was the most outstanding of the three candidates we shortlisted and interviewed and we chose him because we are certain he can come in here and do the job.
“He is from a football background but not from the North-west. But he does know this area well.
“We trust him implicitly and he has an excellent record of securing funding. He is more than capable of coming into Edgeley Park and raising new cash for the club.”
End
August 2012
GANNON'S EVE OF SEASON ADDRESS
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| Jim Gannon |
Stockport County boss Jim Gannon has taken the unprecedented step of giving a pre-season team-talk – to the fans.
Determined that the remarkable turn-around in fortunes for a club that has stared “extinction” square in the face after three successive relegations will continue apace, the Hatters manager has addressed the County faithful directly with a personal plea through fans forums.
“You have had a really tough time of it over the last three years but you have remained loyal and truly shown your love for this club by continuing to support us through thick and thin,” he said.
“That’s why it was so important to me personally to reinstate the ‘12th man’ initiative by giving the club’s No12 shirt to the fans. It is a mark of respect for you fans and your unswerving support.
“I want to show you that you are as appreciated and recognised as any of our players for the part you have played and will play for this club.
“I simply want you to know how valuable you are to this club, for everything you have done and continue to do and for your incredible love and support and, for that, you will always have my utmost respect.
“When we were facing the reality of extinction you came to our aid. Through Your Town Your Team and Help The Hatters and individual offers to help out, the fans saved this club. You are the reason we are still here.
“We are not just building team spirit at Edgeley Park, we are building a new club spirit and you are very much part of what we are and what we will become.”
Gannon revealed he wanted to make the 12th man tribute even more spectacular this season – he personally put £50 into the club’s ‘Name The Stand’ initiative to find a sponsor for the Cheadle End stand.
“If my ticket had won I’d have renamed it the Arthur Brownlow Stand as a tribute to the fans, “ he said.
And he made a promise that the new young team he has assembled to tackle this year’s Blue Square Premier challenge will give the County faithful something to be proud of.
“We have assembled a team that wants to do well for this club and they are surrounded by people who care for this club, supported by people who have trust in what we are doing. When we have doubts this season, when we hit that difficult patch, I want the fans to remember that and remind themselves that their support is absolutely vital to this effort.
“I will make the fans one promise this year – I will give you a team to be proud of. I will give them an enjoyable team to watch who will eventually grow into a promotion team.
"What we have now is the foundations of a team that will be better in six months, better than that in 12 months and even better than that in 18 months. There is a lot of work to do but we’re equipped for that job.
“The fans want to be entertained and to enjoy the journey and I can promise them that they will enjoy that journey this year.
"We want you – the fans – to wear your blue shirt with pride and enjoy this vital role you play for this club. There are better times ahead and we all care about this club.”
End
Oct 2012
THE MAN WITH WHITE BOOTS
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| Craig Hobson |
FOOTBALLERS are superstitious creatures.
Not for them a life dictated by science.
No suggestion of coincidence is welcome amid the Deep Heat and bandage-strapping of a Saturday morning changing room.
Life is much more simple than that for these modern day sporting knights, exponents of the gallant gladiatorial art we commoners refer to as football.
Success is a flimsy concept on the hallowed turf of the home playing field.
Yes, they may work on technique five or six days a week. Yes, practice makes perfect. Yes, you can tune your football art to almost infinite degrees, certainly as well as any white-coated sub-atomic technician can tune particles under laboratory conditions.
But this effort, this busting of guts, this blood, sweat and the shedding of salty tears, is just boots and braces preparation. Like sharpening a knife for a Michelin-starred chef.
The real deal, however, is sealed in the stars. Fate is indeed inexorable. Ask any professional footballer.
You can prepare all you like for the big Saturday game. You can curl all number of dipped and bent half volleys over man-shaped practice walls and into the top corner. You can become a black belt in bicycle kicks. And you can stop a ball dead on a sixpence a thousand times a week.
On match day, this solid preparation is just that. Preparation.
If the Gods of Luck, those unseen deities living above the clouds, are in a thunderous mood, no matter the depth of your efforts, no matter how many times you’ve hit the net blindfolded in training, no matter how much outrageous fortune you’ve consumed in the days leading up to the main event, it will all be for nothing.
Without luck a professional footballer may as well turn out in a pink tutu and Wellington boots, come 3pm on a Saturday. The end product, aside from a few ill timed wolf whistles from the stands, will be the same.
Failure. In a variety of degrees.
The football gods were indeed pleased when Ebbsfleet United visited Edgeley Park at the end of September. They gave the Cheadle End bright blue skies that dripped sunshine onto the deep green turf.
They smiled at the Pop Side, swelling its ranks with youthful voices, faces filled with new hope and potential successors to the dry regal wits who occupy the blue thrones of single-tiered wisdom.
They gave us a fit Danny Hattersley and a returning hero in Paul Turnbull. They even allowed our leader, our greatest man, Sir Jim of Gannon, to crack a pitch-side smile. Briefly.
They gave us this and so much more. Let’s dispense with the preliminaries, shall we? Cut to the chase. Talk about what the football gods really gave us that day. The BIG Prize.
They gave us Craig Hobson’s white boots.
The very same white boots that delivered two straight and true arrows to the shattered hearts of our foe that day.
Two goals in two minutes. Two goals in two minutes.
Those gods of luck, those powers from above, they really loved us that day. They gave us massive reward. For being…well, massive.
And they loved no-one more than the battling, leggy blade of the Stockport County sword – Craig Hobson.
The gods smiled on our Craig that day.
After 10 solid games, 900 minutes of effort, 20 half-time team talks, Craig Hobson’s white boots gave us goals.
Two in two minutes.
Don’t take my word for it. Just ask Craig.
Those white boots are something quite special.
Not his usual Nike Total 90s. He’d been persuaded to ditch his old faithfuls and try a new pair of Umbros on the eve of this match.
“I’m not really the sort to wear white boots,” he says, giggling at the thought of these spectacularly massive and virgin-white statements of intent on the end of each of his over-long legs.
“The kit man had given them to me the night before the Ebbsfleet match. I thought I’d give them a try, give them a run out.
“They obviously did the trick because I scored my first two goals for County. At Edgeley Park too. That made it even more special.
“II’ll be wearing them from now on and hoping they have the same effect in the upcoming games.”
Superstition? Or just the unequivocal acceptance that our fates are indeed in the hands of powers beyond our mortal comprehension?
There was, by Craig’s own admission, an undeniable force at work that day.
“That first goal…if I had that shot again I would probably miss it. But I knew what I was going to do before it even happened. I knew I was going to push it to one side and try and curl it past the keeper.
“When it came to me what I did was simply instinctive. It could very easily have hit the defender’s foot and bounced off in any direction. But it curled into the top corner past the keeper. It was great to see it go in,” he recalls.
“The second was one of those occasions where the less time you have to think about it the better. I really didn’t have time to think and just slotted it past the keeper.
“Being a striker you do worry, it does affect your confidence, if you are not scoring. I do think my first goals here were overdue but it’s done now. And I’m hoping it will make a big difference for me. I want to crack on and keep scoring and helping the team win. I want my goals to help push the team on further up the table.
“I’m over the moon to get my goal tally under way. I was disappointed not to have scored till now.”
He’s a big man Hobson, in every sense. His big pumping heart is framed by the body of a colossus. But there’s more to him than his blott-out-the-sun physique.
While the young braves, his fellow royal blue warriors, warm down post match with a night out on the tiles, enjoying the rite of passage trodden by generations of their footballing forefathers, Hobson is almost certainly at home, babysitting his three month old daughter.
“She was born in the summer and we called her Lola. To be honest, she’s really helped me settle down. Made the whole transition this summer much easier.
“When I heard Stockport County were in for me there was only one way it was going to go. This is where I wanted to play.
“It’s a cracking set of lads here. And there is a really strong team ethic. We all feel we can push on from here. That win against Ebbsfleet, we all knew it was coming, we all knew it was only a matter of time.
“We’ve been so close to it. We’ve drawn games we should have won, we’ve lost games we should have won. And even when we’ve been beaten its been by the odd goal, often due to our own mistakes.
“We know that if we can cut out those errors then we’ll win many more games.
“Look at the league, it is still early days, and there’s not much between where we are and the top teams, points-wise. There’s not been a single team we’ve played that we couldn’t beat on our day.
“If we go on a decent run now, of course we could end up in the play-off places. It’s wide open this league this year.
“We’re really hopeful we can push on from here and enjoy a good season.
“For me, I just want to keep on scoring, building that partnership with Danny (Hattersley) and, between us, scoring the goals that give us more and more wins.
“And, yeah, I’ll be definitely wearing the white boots.”
End
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