Winter wows on debut

COUNTY completed the signing of FC United’s Harry Winter last week, before the steely midfielder went on to produce a man-of-the-match display in The Hatters’ 3-1 win over neighbours Curzon Ashton on Saturday.

The 27-year-old joined on a deal until the end of the 2017/18 campaign and County boss Jim Gannon said: “I feel the signing of Harry at this stage of the campaign is a great addition to the squad, as well as an important step in the team building process for next season.

“I’ve known of Harry for several years and he’s a very capable player at this level with great experience of playing and success with many clubs at this level and the next level up.”

The former Halifax midfielder admitted the move came out of the blue.

“It all came as a bit of a surprise really,” he said. “I liked being at FC United – but obviously, Stockport is a huge club. They placed seven days’ notice in for me, so it was something to think about with the position in the league table and with the club’s ambition.”

Winter was awarded the man of the match gong, having turned in a solid debut alongside the influential Lewis Montrose – including a superb cross-field pass for Danny Lloyd to tee up Jimmy Ball for the third goal.

County’s win was marred slightly by the rest of the top seven in the National League North all winning, but Winter claimed that County can “only focus on themselves.”

“It was just great to get that first game out of the way, to get the win and start settling in with the lads. I was delighted to get the man of the match award; it was massive for me on my debut.

“We were all aware that the rest of the top sides had all won as well, but all we can do is keep winning and keep playing our game – and I’ve seen nothing here to suggest that we can’t make those play-off places.”