Boom before bust...
HE YEAR 2001 was to mark the start of a scarcely believable decade-long chapter in the life of Stockport County.
Complementing Stanley Kubrick’s conveniently–titled 1960s science fiction epic, 2001: A Space Odyssey, this chapter took the form of a voyage on earth, rather than elsewhere in the universe – but proved to be one of equal mystery and drama.
The Hatters’ journey of changing fortune during this 10–year period was also certainly one to rival that of ancient mythological hero Odysseus for adventure.
But while Homer’s work rose up to a happy ending, County’s story ultimately resembled a Greek tragedy that saw them fall from today’s equivalent of the Championship and out of the Football League – as well as playing at a stadium they could no longer call their own.
Not that it was entirely a one–way decline, however. Between 2006 and 2008, County, under the management of former player Jim Gannon, enjoyed heady times on the pitch – culminating in something that the club’s teams of the 1990s boom years had failed to achieve: a victory in the play-offs at Wembley.
Rob Clare, more than most on the pitch, lived through the fluctuations in County’s fortunes – having played for the club during two separate spells, from 2000 to 2004 and 2005 to 2008.
“There was great pride and prestige around the place when I first joined County’s Centre of Excellence as a YTS player,” the former defender – now Sport Centre Director for the Laurus Trust – recalls.
“We were in Division One, with a good set of pros, playing and beating the likes of Fulham, Wolves and Manchester City.
“The club remained family–friendly, though. It never felt as if it were too big for its boots. And, in Brendan Elwood, we had a chairman who was a charismatic leader, but at the same time knew the names of all of us who played and worked there.”
But a downturn was just around the corner for County – on both the playing and the non–playing fronts.
Having consolidated in the First Division over four seasons, the Hatters’ fifth campaign, in 2001/02, saw them relegated on just 26 points. And another record was added to those in their collection of which they were less proud, when County’s fate was sealed as early as mid–March to become the quickest–confirmed Football League demotion in post–war years.
Then, in the summer of 2003, Elwood sold the club to Cheshire Sport – a company under businessman Brian Kennedy, who was the majority owner and chairman of Sale Sharks rugby union club.
County continued to play at Edgeley Park, albeit now as tenants rather than owners, and, as such, without the key asset – their ground – which might have helped attract further investment.
Work undertaken over the boom years to enhance the club’s links with local and international communities unravelled under the company that was now running both County and Sale. And long–serving staff at County, including Steve Bellis, left the employ of Edgeley Park.
Matters also worsened on the pitch, as two bottom–half finishes in the third tier were followed, in 2004/05, by another relegation – again with 26 points. And by the end of 2005, the Hatters were five points adrift at the bottom of the Football League’s basement division – having suffered a 6–0 thrashing at Macclesfield Town on Boxing Day.
But that ignominious defeat by their Cheshire near–neighbours was to prove something of a watershed – with the departure of manager Chris Turner, and his replacement, initially on a caretaker basis, by former player Jim Gannon.
Rob Clare was by then in his second spell at County.
“We had some decent players,” he insists. “Good enough to have been at least a mid–table League Two side.
“The team just wasn’t clicking, though – and morale was low. As soon as we conceded, it would be a case of ‘here we go again’.
“But then Jim freshened things up, we started getting results and the lads grew in confidence.”
Indeed, he – and they –
‘County was now a small club floundering with other small clubs’
did. What was to follow Gannon’s appointment was a second half of the campaign that saw the Hatters avoid defeat in 17 of their remaining 23 games, and escape relegation with a final–day draw against champions Carlisle United.
Gannon had been under no illusions about the undertaking that faced him on his return to Edgeley Park.
“It was a massive task,” he says.
“County had been a small club in my playing days, but had achieved success – with Brendan Elwood’s money enabling the purchase of quality footballers. Now it was a small club floundering with other small clubs.
“I knew we needed some new players – and fast – so brought in the likes of Adam Griffin, Kevin O’Connor and Jason Taylor on loan to help keep us up.
“And, building from that, I planned for organic growth – putting together experienced players with younger ones who had the potential to develop.”
The results on the pitch were startling. County narrowly missed out on the League Two play–offs in 2006/07 – but did, during that campaign, establish a new Football League record of nine consecutive victories without conceding a goal.
This latter achievement was remarkably celebrated on record, when County fan and UK representative from the 2006 Eurovision Song Contest, Daz Sampson, released Jim Gannon’s Army Goes Marching On. Even more remarkably, the song hit the Download Chart Top 20 – before stalling at 17.
Two ever–present players during the ‘nine in a row’ run – goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey and defender Ashley Williams – have since taken the centre of the international football stage, as part of the Welsh team that memorably this summer reached the semi–finals of Euro 2016.
The following season for the Hatters, 2007/08, saw them not only reach the play–offs, but also achieve promotion – as well as their first Wembley win in five attempts – after edging out Rochdale at the new, rebuilt national stadium by the odd goal in five.
With an average age of 21, County’s players looked set to progress the club further in the third tier. But once again events behind the scenes were to lead to another turn for the worse.
Brian Kennedy, in 2005, had concluded a deal with the Stockport County Supporters’ Trust whereby the Trust would take over the club from Cheshire Sport.
And a lack of money, combined with inexperience, on the Trust’s part was to place County in administration towards the end of its first season back in League One during the spring of 2009.
The Hatters had been in a respectable position, on 60 points, when the administrators entered. And as Gannon reflected: “I wanted to keep the young players together, to get us into the Championship the next year.
“But that was impossible, now the club was finished as a business.”
So too – at least for the time being – was Gannon’s job as manager. He was made redundant as part of the subsequent cost–cutting exercise.
And the following two seasons were to spell the end of County’s Football League tenure – with bottom–placed finishes in League One (while remaining in administration) for 2009/10 and in League Two a year later.
The last of those campaigns was, with miserable irony, to be the Hatters’ hundredth as a side in the Football League – of which, taking into account the World Wars, they had proudly held membership for 110 years (and continuously, save for one season, 1904/05, in the Lancashire Combination).
At the time, in 2011, they were the longest surviving League club to have dropped into non–league competition.
Excepting the brief revival under Gannon, it had been a decade to test the fiercest of loyalties. But the traditional commitment of County supporters, while undoubtedly battered and bruised, was not entirely broken. Even for 2010/11 the average Edgeley Park attendance was well above four thousand.
That support continued through the years of further decline that followed.
It was difficult to conceive – even in such troubled times for the club – how matters could possibly get any worse.
And yet deteriorate further they did.
Within just two more years, the Hatters would have turned part–time and be playing regional non–league football for the first time since 1905.