2018/19: Our Championship Season!

Only 21 players made a start in the league with two only making substitute - thats a pretty consistent team - all credit to Jim for getting the selection right, to the players for being available and all the backroom staff keeping them fit and coaching them to do well.
Add to that crowds averaging over 4000 - with some attendances over 6000
The finances hopefully have been bolstered for next season
All round a damn fine season for everyone

My other Goodbye to the North article - mercifully without self-imposed word-count restrictions!

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COUNTY IN 2018/19: AN A-Z

‘It’s fun to wander through the alphabet with you’, as Perry Como sang in 1949 - completely unaware that precisely 70 years later his second line would be misappropriated and read ‘To tell you all about Count-ee!’. Hatter in Macc goes from A to Zee, lest some of the facts and figures from a season to remember should ever get forgotten…

A is for ATTENDANCES. And what a campaign it was for them, both home and away. The Hatters’ aggregate crowds at Edgeley Park hit six figures (100,919, to be precise) for the first time since our Football League days, while the 6,311 paying customers for Spennymoor Town’s visit to SK3 broke the record for a regular National League North/South game - which County had previously held. On the road, we helped a number of hosts towards their best gates this term - and were represented by 1,000-plus ‘Twelfth Men’ at Altrincham, Barnet, Chester, Chorley, AFC Fylde and, of course (with more to be said under ‘L’), Nuneaton Borough’s Liberty Way.

B is for BREWERY FIELD. Spennymoor Town’s home may have a wicked slope of a playing surface, and no chance of any prizes for pitch drainage - but we Hatters should forever cherish it. Not only did County pull off an impressive first win there in December, but, on Easter Monday, it was also the venue for Glen Taylor’s added-time winner against Chorley that sensationally put the race for the title back in our hands - earning NLN Player of the Season Taylor a cheekily unique place in County’s Goal of the Year competition, for which, naturally, he was highly commended! Meanwhile, thinking of Spenny’s opponents that day…

C is for CHORLEY. The runners-up, by a single point. But it would be ungracious not to pay tribute to the Magpies, who, following the season’s first couple of games, never left the top two places. By the end of August, they had 21 points from seven opening wins - a haul that it took County until November to reach - and it was March before the Hatters were first able to close the gap on the Lancashire club and execute the first of our three leapfrogs into pole position.

D is for DOUBLES. We managed to achieve eight of them in the NLN this term: against (chronologically) Altrincham, Leamington, FC United, Southport, Spennymoor, Ashton United, Darlington and Curzon Ashton. This equalled our haul of 1966/67, and, rather quirkily, the heroes of 2018/19, like the previously most recent County title-winners, also had a ‘double’ done unto them by a club beginning with ‘B’ - with Blyth Spartans repeating the Fourth Division feat of Brentford against us 52 years ago.

E is for ENGLAND. To be honest, we really should have been a great deal more confident about our ultimate fate - and that it would be good - this season, following as it did a summer in which England reached the World Cup Semi-finals. For when the national team achieves a last-four finish (or better) in a major tournament, County duly get promoted the next year. The 1966 World Cup win was followed by our Fourth Division championship, while the disappointment of Semi-final exits from the 1990 World Cup and Euro ’96 were compensated in each of the subsequent seasons by respective promotions for the Hatters from the League’s fourth and third tiers.

F is for FEWEST. The final NLN table saw us end up with fewer defeats (eight) and goals against (36) than any of our opponents. And in the Fair Play League, we also reigned supreme - with a card count of only 30 yellows and one red that was, all told, over 10 less than second-placed Brackley Town’s.

G is for GUISELEY. Okay, so we failed to beat the ‘Lions’ - against whom one-all draws were the order of the day on both occasions. But by virtue of Darren Stephenson’s late first-half goal at Nethermoor, County did at least lay to rest a hoodoo which had previously never seen us score there. And, of course, our first-ever point at the expense of the Yorkshire hosts was to prove handy in the end!

H is for HAT-TRICKS. Or, if you will, Matt-tricks! Top scorer Matty Warburton not only matched Jason Oswell’s 2017/18 pair of three-goal NLN hauls by claiming the match-balls against Chorley (as a second-half substitute, no less!) and York City - but also bagged four in the FA Trophy contest with Truro City, thereby becoming the first Hatter to net that many in a competitive game since Adam le Fondre over a dozen years earlier.

I is for IAN. At County, we have been blessed to have the two best goalkeepers in non-league’s second tier. Spare a thought, then, for Ian Ormson, who spent all 42 NLN matches and 13 FA Trophy and Cup-ties as an unused substitute while ever-present Ben Hinchliffe remained between the sticks. Ian did get to keep goal for our four Cheshire Senior Cup games - performing with his typically consummate professionalism in each.

J is for JIM. Who else, but the most successful Hatters’ Gaffer? Having given us an initial taste for silverware courtesy of our CSC victory three years ago, James Gannon continued to write history, as County’s longest-serving boss also achieved in his third spell a first title for the club for over half a century and a second promotion to add to that which he secured during his first managerial stint (in 2008), as well as the two he enjoyed with us as a player (in 1991 and 1997).

K is for KIDDERMINSTER. League meetings with the Harriers, prior to this season, had become a cause for mighty dread. After crashing ignominiously out of the (now) National League at Aggborough in 2013, the Hatters endured four further straight defeats by Kidderminster in the NLN between 2016 and 2018. Early this term, an August Bank Holiday reverse there extended the sequence to five - but the Kiddy jinx was at last broken at EP in the final game of the calendar year, as Sam Minihan headed home Scott Duxbury’s corner three minutes from time for victory.

L is for LIBERTY WAY. Nuneaton’s home was all the more fittingly named, given that it proved to be the venue where, after six years, we gained our freedom from the NLN on the season’s final day. Relegated Boro’s hospitality was supremely accommodating in many ways - but, most of all, for giving over part or all of each side around the ground to 3,450 travelling Hatters. The ground’s attendance record was smashed by nearly 600, with away supporters making up a staggering 85% of those present.

M is for MAIDSTONE UNITED. At over 250 miles, our longest trip of the season - and it was on a Tuesday night! A draw in the initial Saturday FA Trophy Quarter-final against the National League ‘Stones’ had produced a result that no Hatters really wanted, although the long schlep down to Kent for the replay three days later was worth it for a superb, and fully deserved, 3-0 victory. And the 3:30am arrival back in Stockport at least prepared us a tad for the midweek journeys to Dover and Torquay that our new division’s fixtures computer will inevitably allocate our way next term!

N is for NINE. Not quite the ‘nine in a row’ relating to home and away wins without conceding, also whilst under Jim Gannon’s guidance, in 2007. But, this time around, the Hatters made Edgeley a true Fortress to chalk up nine successive home victories - between seeing off near-neighbours Altrincham on Boxing Day and old Football League friends Darlington towards the end of March.

O is for OTHER TITLE-WINNING HATTERS. County’s opportunities to face the ‘Hatters’ of Luton Town have been relatively limited over the years. But the sharing of a nickname has sparked some affinity in shared good times, with mutual congratulations being exchanged between the clubs and their fans following confirmation of Luton’s promotion from League One, three days after our title win. This dual success has occurred once before, too: in 1936/37, when both sets of Hatters finished up as champions of the Third Division North (us) and South (them).

P is for PENALTIES. The Hatters have been awarded half a dozen spot-kicks this season, and not missed any of them. Frank Mulhern converted the first, to secure a draw at home to Hereford, in mid-October, and was also successful from 12 yards at Ashton United. The other taker, Sam Walker, has put away all four of his: against Nuneaton at EP, away to Curzon Ashton and in both meetings with Chester. And talking of those trips to Ashton United and Chester…

Q is for QUEEN VICTORIA. She was still reigning o’er us on the only occasion prior to this season when the Hatters had ever triumphed by a 6-0 margin on their travels. That was in the Lancashire League at Middleton during the early spring of 1900 - and County would go on to finish as champions the same season, too. Fast-forward 119 years, history finally repeated with a title to follow not one but two victories by the same scoreline, within just over three months of each other, at Hurst Cross and the Deva Stadium. The 1899/1900 campaign had also, spookily, witnessed the Hatters’ last home win before this season’s against Chorley - back in the day when they played at Green Lane in Heaton Norris.

R is for ROWE. It is rare for a season to go by without a former Hatter coming back to haunt - and, in some cases, taunt - County. One-time loanee striker Danny L Rowe will be remembered not quite so fondly for having done both this term, after firing in a penalty during the second leg of our FA Trophy Semi-final with Fylde at EP. Two other players once of the SK3 parish - Kaine Felix, for Guiseley, and Josh Amis, in the CSC at Warrington Town - netted opening goals against us, but notably kept any celebrations rather more to themselves.

S is for SOUTHPORT. You would have to be drawing your state pension to remember the previous time when the Hatters, before this season, came away from Southport’s Haig Avenue with maximum points. County’s newly-appointed inaugural player-manager Willie Moir scored the only goal of the game there in the early stages of the 1956/57 Third Division North campaign, a fortnight shy of 56 years before Connor Dimaio did likewise to secure our first NLN win on the road this term.

T is for TROPHY. Having reached the last eight of the premier non-league knockout competition for the first time in 2017/18, the Hatters went one better this season to contest the FA Trophy Semi-finals - which eventually saw us edged out by the odd goal in five over two legs against Fylde. We did ourselves much credit, however, by beating two of Fylde’s National League companions, Harrogate Town and Maidstone United, along the way - and on their own respective 3G pitches.

U is for UNDEFEATED. County’s win at Boston United in the first week of March not only lifted us to the top of the table, but also equalled a club record from 1936/37 for going 16 consecutive league matches without defeat in a single season. The latest run, which began during early December with our home draw against Chester, was all the more impressive when results from Trophy and CSC ties within the period were added to make a total of 23 games unbeaten.

V is for VISITS. Whatever may happen in the season to come, it is highly likely that we Hatters have visited for the last time two grounds that, for many years, have housed two of our former Football League opponents. With their respective new Community Stadia approaching completion, York City will bid farewell to Bootham Crescent early in 2018/19, while Boston United are scheduled to depart (as coincidence would have it) York Street this time next year. So, pre-season friendlies and - in Boston’s case - an FA Cup/Trophy pairing notwithstanding, but with a tinge of sadness for losing a pair of ‘old school’ venues, those two sat-nav settings may soon be permanently erased.

W is for WIND. Three County fixtures away from home went ahead during 2019 in the face of windy conditions generated on account of storms named by the Met Office. Storm Erik’s gusts led to the archetypal game of two halves, and a share of the points, at Guiseley during February, before Storm Gareth (sorry, guys!) prevailed while we crashed out of the CSC at Nantwich Town in mid-March. Mercifully, the third instance, at Nuneaton on the final day, saw the Hatters go two-up with the first-half wind on their backs, before weathering the Storm (Hannah), and even adding a third, following the break to… erm, breeze to victory and the championship.

X is for (e)X-LEAGUE CLUBS. We shall be leaving eight of them (Boston, Bradford (Park Avenue), Chester, Darlington, Hereford, Kidderminster, Southport and York) behind in non-league’s second tier. But, at the time of writing, there will be 11 others with whom we get to renew acquaintance at the level above, including…

Y is for YEOVIL TOWN. The Glovers’ relegation from League Two was confirmed at Northampton Town while County’s title celebrations were getting under way just 35 miles to the north-west in Warwickshire. And yet, a little over five months previously, the two clubs had met in the FA Cup at two tiers apart - with Yeovil becoming the first Football League club to suffer defeat by the Hatters since our our own fall through the trapdoor eight years ago.

Z is for ‘ZING! As in buz-Zing. Well, a fortnight or so on, we all still are, eh?!

Not a great fan of Chorley the club, but Chorley the team was definitely worthy of going up.

A fairly local-ish trip for us next term, too. Goodness knows we shall be short of them - Chesterfield, Halifax and Wrexham notwithstanding!

Cheers, H!

Many thanks, Gazz-man! 😀

Cheers, Ceefs.

Feels a lot longer ago than 14 months when I wrote my pieces for it!