POST-MATCH THREAD: Stockport County v Charlton Athletic: Saturday 8th March 2025: KO 12:30

An excellent away trip and an extremely valuable point against difficult and very aggressive opponents. 

We caught the 11:13 out of Euston on Friday morning. My sons hopped off at Stockport and had a few pints at The Magnet Freehouse - which they found excellent in all respects (especially beer wise) - and The Petersgate Tap. I had carried on into Manchester to meet a couple of my old mates from up north and we visited the Piccadilly Tap, the City Arms (CAMRA’s Manchester pub of the year) and the Northern Monk Refectory. Between times, we squeezed in some grub at the Mackie Mayor in the Northern Quarter and 30 minutes of culture at the Manchester Art Gallery. 

I reconvened with the boys at the Holiday Inn Stockport shortly after 8pm, had a cuppa, recuperated and we went out again shortly after 9:30 to Ye Olde Vic. A cracking little pub. It only served to reinforce my view that you can always trust a pub with beer mats covering the ceiling and walls. A very friendly establishment (it had a special licence to open at 10:30 on match days) and the landlady let us out after closing.

Unfortunately, despite being nicely tucked up by midnight, I omitted to set my alarm and was woken at 10:23, with 7 minutes to get down to breakfast and 33 minutes to check out. All’s well that ends well, although it was a slightly more frenetic start to the day than I envisaged when I initially awoke at 6:40 (which can only be match day/play-off induced excitement). Also staying in the hotel were Douglas Rugby Club from  the Isle of Man, who were playing Crewe & Nantwich this afternoon. Not cheap to put a squad up in the Holiday Inn but maybe the 10% tax rate helps.

We met the rest of our gang off the 11:00am train, went for a coffee and then made our way to the ground, where there were a phenomenal number of stewards and security checks in place. In fairness, everyone was very pleasant but it did feel a little disproportionate. The last time I remember such scrutiny was at Boston airport after the shoe bomber. 

As for the game, Stockport started quickly but we saw their initial flurry of pressure out and the game settled down. The best - really only - chance of the half fell to Berry from Edwards’ inswinging cross but he couldn’t direct his effort under the bar.

Predictably, Stockport came out very aggressively and nearly went ahead early on, with Mannion producing a fine close range save and their forward then hooking another effort onto the bar. We produced next to nothing attacking wise, save for Gillesphey’s glancing header near the end, and Stockport undoubtedly had the lion’s share of possession and pressure in the second half. We defended our box exceptionally well and kudos to Lloyd Jones, Gillesphey, Mannion and their colleagues.

Stockport had clearly done their homework and negated our attacking threat down the wings with TC and Thierry Small. With the midfield also stymied, we ended up going long to Leaburn, who struggled against a couple of very proficient central defenders. Their proficiency extended to the dark arts, with the referee’s decision to ignore some early grappling serving to encourage more of the same. 

It all made for an attritional and pretty tense spectacle, although that was hardly unexpected. Stockport had more of the play and marginally more chances but it was an excellent point for us. To be honest, I said 8 days ago that I’d be happy with two draws at Orient and Stockport and a win against Barnsley, so to take 7 points from the last 3 games against our fellow play-off contenders is an excellent haul. In addition, a number of our competitors slipped up yet again and, realistically, I think we are now out of reach for both Orient and Barnsley. Huddersfield also continue to dip.

Post-match, we rehydrated  in the Runaway Brewery and Taproom after the unseasonally warm weather and then went on to the excellent Magnet Freehouse. It did not disappoint and we rounded the trip off with a final beer in the Bakers Vaults before catching the 18:44 back to Euston.

Let’s hope we have a clean bill of health for Tuesday against Crawley and that we can do the business. I can see Matty Godden coming back in for that one, with Miles introduced from the bench. At least it’s a relatively local game with limited travel before we welcome the lads back to, I hope, a heroes’ welcome at The Valley next Saturday.