Historic double for Town
FRIDAY 8th September 2017 will forever be a memorable day in the history of Stockport Town Football Club.
On a wet Friday evening two of the club’s teams defied all expectations to gain victories in FA competitions.
Firstly, Stockport Town U18s visited Edgeley Park to take on Stockport County U18s in the FA Youth Cup, the first time the club had entered the competition. And much to the surprise of the 160-plus crowd in attendance, they came away with a 4-3 victory.
An unbelievable long-range strike from Jack McConnell, followed by goals from Adam Simpson, Ronny Pepe and an own goal, saw the young Lions grasp victory, all despite a hat-trick from County striker, Richmond Banfo. Even more fascinating was the fact that the team had only trained together on one occasion prior to the game. Of the squad, eleven were part of the club’s scholarship programme run by Coaching Connexions, that only started on the Wednesday prior.
Jake Davies, the regular reserves manager who oversaw the victory said “We are really proud of the young lads, many of them were playing their first ever game for Stockport Town, and this was a perfect platform for them to demonstrate their abilities. The fantastic result will hopefully give them the confidence to not only go on a cup run, but to also push-on to the reserves and first team.”
The prize for victory is a trip to another local club in Hyde United, the game taking place at Ewen Fields on Friday 22nd September.
Meanwhile, the first team travelled to midCheshire to take on Northwich Victoria, former winners of the FA Trophy, but this time in the FA Vase. And like the U18s, the senior Lions showed no fear, racing into a 4-1 lead with goals from Tyler Edwards, Andrew Fitzgerald, and Aaron Dwyer (2).
Northwich rallied to pull back two late goals but it was not enough to deny the Lions a victory and progress to the next round to take on West Didsbury and Chorlton on 23rd September.
The Lions are back in home action on Monday, taking on New Mills at Stockport Sports Village, 8pm kick off.