In the meantime - and with Southport already in receipt of the 'Take Five' treatment earlier this season - here is my piece for COWS on County's past FA Trophy adventures... such as they have been!
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TAKE FIVE… County in the FA TrophyBy Hatter in Macc1. Time for another cup competition, AND visitors who have already been here this term?!Indeed so. Just as our FA Cup opener in mid-September saw us host Curzon Ashton, who had been in SK3 for a midweek National League North match the previous month, so, too, does our entry into the FA Trophy involve entertaining a club - in this case, Southport - who made the trip to Edgeley Park, and also on a Tuesday night, at an earlier stage of the campaign.
A more detailed focus on the ‘Sandgrounders’ was posted prior to our meeting in early September, and is at
www.stockportcounty.com/take-five-southport/. But, ahead of what will be County’s seventh season in the Trophy, this piece looks at our brief involvement to date with the competition which, since 2013, while County have been in the second non-league tier, has entailed a Third Qualifying Round start.
2. So - how does our short Trophy history look thus far?Not earth-shattering, if truth be told. Even during our spell in the Blue Square Bet Premier (as was), which saw us exempt from the Qualifying stages, we have ventured no further than Round Two-proper - making the last 32 three times, before losing in replays away at, as coincidence would have it, Southport (2012/13), as well as Wrexham (2014/15) and Brackley (last season).
More ignominiously, the Hatters have twice exited the Trophy to opponents from a lower level: on our debut during 2011/12, at Stalybridge, following another replay (of which we have had five in the competition, all told - without ever winning one); and two years ago against Nantwich at EP, which began a rather remarkable sequence of consecutive home ties in either the FA Cup or Trophy that, following the draw for this weekend’s match, is now at 11… and still counting!
3. And what about scoreline highs and lows?Well, they are all about the joy - or despair - of ‘six’! One of County’s Second Round departures came courtesy of a 6-1 walloping on a wintry January night, a little under three years back, at Wrexham’s Racecourse Ground - where the hosts’ midfielder Joe Clarke kept a second-half clean sheet in goal, just to add insult to an injury that befell their regular ‘keeper before the break.
The Hatters had felt a good deal happier in the late autumn of 2012, after receiving and then thrashing Ossett Town, from the Northern Premier League First Division North, 6-0 in Round One. A scoreline that was not to be repeated at EP… until - and any Sandgrounders are welcome to skip the rest of this sentence! - the most recent battle of the two ‘Ports just over 10 weeks ago .
4. Have any former Hatters played their part in our downfall during past Trophy ties? Some do spring to mind - although, bless ‘em, they tended in the main to join County afterwards, rather than coming back to haunt their old club!
Karl Ledsham (at Edgeley Park in 2015/16), for example, had, before signing as a Hatter, converted Southport’s first goal in each of the ties against us five years ago. Connor Jennings (2012/13) and Greg Wilkinson (2015) had both netted - thrice in the former’s case - for Stalybridge over two matches in the previous season - although Jennings did subsequently redeem himself a tad by going on to become County’s leading Trophy goal-getter to date, with four in the competition… including one at EP against Southport. He was also later to return to SK3, though, and score one for Wrexham early in 2015 - thereby emulating another ex-Hatter, Danny O’Donnell (2011-13), whose equaliser had seen Barrow on the way to a replay-win here during 2013/14.
5. Let the magic of the Trophy take over, then!By all means. Just so long as we get spared the drama of equalisers in the dying seconds (which also, by coincidence and courtesy of Danny Lloyd’s Goal of the Season against Brackley in January, marked our last home tie in the competition).
Let’s face it - they’re so-ooo last fortnight!
