Hatters planning for a brighter tomorrow

FTER some 15 years of often severe trials and tribulations in both the Football League and the non-league world, Stockport County are ‘Moving Forward’.

So, at least, reads the strapline of a target-driven Five-Year Plan – issued by the club in the spring of 2015, and aiming for County’s return, by the end of this decade, to the Football League that the Hatters left at its beginning.

There is much to do before success can once again grace a club that began the 21st century in the equivalent of today’s Championship, but now finds itself playing on a semi-professional basis and at a regional nonleague level.

With a governance infrastructure populated by individuals who genuinely support County, it might be tempting to focus efforts on bolstering the club’s first team. But the board is not blind to the necessity of also making the business stable and sustainable - an objective to which directors attach equal importance.

Developments off the pitch in the plan’s first 18 months have been positive, with a six-figure debt write-off, an increase in commercial income, the return to the club of several former sponsors and the rebuilding of links with the local community.

Perhaps most significantly - and without doubt most symbolically - the club’s progress in the right direction was highlighted halfway through last year, when Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council bought Edgeley Park which had been owned, and remained at risk of sale for alternative use, by businessman Brian Kennedy.

Transferring back to County the actual stadium ownership that the club lost in 2003 is a longerterm objective, but for now the council’s purchase provides muchneeded stability for the Hatters to continue playing in their home town.

Paul Lawrence, now executive director of place for the City of Edinburgh, was the council officer who had been instrumental in securing the purchase while holding a similar post at the Borough Council.

“The development was about regeneration for both the club and for Stockport, which as a town centre had been struggling from a retail and entertainment point of view,” he explains.

“Successful towns have successful institutions and those institutions include football clubs, which, if thriving, have an energising effect on their localities.

“Buying Edgeley Park also hopefully gives County a stable platform from which to move forward on the footballing side.”

The town of Stockport – and, in particular, its Edgeley suburb – is certainly considered home by Jim Gannon, who was brought back in January 2016 to manage the team for a third time, and is now planning to help the Hatters return to where they once belonged.

“My first house was in Edgeley, after I joined the club as a player (in 1990),” he recalls. “My neighbours were County fans, and I soon felt part of the community. Having grown up for the most part in Ireland, there hadn’t been a place in England I could call home as such – but Stockport became it.

“I’ve never moved away from the town, and I’m still living within a mile of Edgeley Park today.”

This emotional attachment goes some way to explaining Gannon’s continued affection for a club where he has not always been treated in a manner he might have wished.

As a player, he became involved in a dispute after County charged him £10,000 to use the Edgeley Park pitch for his testimonial match.

And his two previous spells in the managerial hot-seat saw him made redundant in 2009 and sacked four years later.

“I have, it’s true, previously left Edgeley Park hating certain people there,” he adds.

“But I love the club and its fans. And there is something so special about the town and its community.” ●●County boss Jim Gannon returned to the club for a third spell as manager in January 2016

Gannon is also driven by a second, historical dynamic - with a sense of unfinished business from his initial stint as manager, which ended after the then League One club entered administration and his 2008 promotionwinning collection of talented young footballers such as Tommy Rowe - was dismantled to raise funds for continued trading.

He emphasises: “We have to be flexible in our thinking about the future squad - particularly as the step from regional to national non-league that we want to take next is massive, and requires a decision about becoming full-time again.

“But for me it has to include young players like (current senior squad members) Scott Duxbury, Sam Minihan and Adam Thomas, who can grow with the club and hopefully fulfil their careers here at a higher level.”

Further down the agescale, and under director of youth development Alan Lord, the Hatters run an elite Under-21 Development Team in the Lancashire League, while Lord’s Profootball Academy, in association with County, brings on promising players from around Stockport and Greater Manchester between the ages of 12 and 19.

Lord, also a former manager of the Hatters, enthuses: “This infrastructure gives County a seamless conveyor belt of talent that will eventually be compared with our exciting young prospects of the past.

“Jim has opened the door, and the work is in progress. I tell players in the Under-21s and the Academy that ‘nothing but yourself can stop you from getting in the first team’!”

The club’s aim of making County a ‘club of choice’ for developing young local talent - just as it had done with its Centre of Excellence before and around the turn of the century - is complemented on the non-playing side by activities aimed at restoring engagement with the community to its former levels.

Steve Bellis, now back at the club as a senior adviser to the board after leaving Edgeley Park as marketing manager 11 years ago, has welcomed the revival of the ‘healthy living’ initiative he launched during County’s 1990s boom period.

The scheme once again focuses on local schools, and uses players as positive role models for children - who in turn become more aware of the football team playing in their town.

Bellis says: “There is definitely a better feeling around the club than there was - and that is partly down to our bringing back things that work, like the school talks.

“But we made sure when we resumed them that we started with an apology to each school for not having been around in more recent years.”

Bellis’s fellow senior adviser, George Hudson, has been a County supporter for over 30 years who once served briefly as a director. He complements the skills of his counterpart with systems and operations expertise that is being applied to help the club save expenditure and generate income.

Hudson observes: “You can’t build anything without strong foundations and, at the risk of sounding boring, that includes the way we operate behind the scenes.

“The club has no administrative team of people, so needs the online functions it uses to be very smart. Our ticketing system and website development are key priorities for review.”

Another to have renewed his connection at Edgeley Park is Christian Machowski, who, as a returning former sponsor, illustrates how an increasing number of businesses are coming back to provide financial support for County.

Machowski, whose Euro Sport & Event Management company is acting as the club’s main sponsor for 2016/17, previously supported the Edgeley Park conference facilities in the first years of the new century.

“Brendan Elwood was still chairman then,” he recalls. “It was a club that the town could be proud of.

“But what followed was a negative example of a club run by fans (while the Supporters’ Trust was in control from 2005 until County’s entry into administration four years later). Being a supporter and making clear business decisions are two very different things, and what I think happened there was that the heart ruled the head.

“I stepped away back then, but am convinced that the right people are in charge now - so am happy to invest again.”

Not missing the apparent irony of his earlier observation, he adds: “We have a new set of genuine County supporters running the club once more but they have learned from the lessons of earlier years, are living within their means and are not taking any unnecessary risks.

“That will ensure the longevity of the club. Which is the most important thing.”

It would be difficult to find any fans of the Hatters who fundamentally disagreed with that - if only for the sake of their grandchildren. But equally all - and with varying degrees of patience naturally crave success for the team they pay to watch.

A team that still commands an extraordinary commitment from its supporters, who quite often on their National League North travels outnumber the home fans.

A team that runs out at Edgeley Park to the Royal Guardsmen’s original version of Snoopy Versus The Red Baron - whose lyrics were amended by County fans into a chant that is still sung today by way of celebrating League Cup giant-killings against top-flight Crystal Palace and West Ham during 1972/73.

And a team all five Stockport-born members from current band of the moment, Blossoms, took time out to watch on the opening day of this season - in a week that also saw their self-titled debut album of radio-friendly guitar pop top the charts within days of release.

But how long will success for County take? Perhaps, as this series began with an overview of their earlier rich and curious heritage, history has the answer.

“Seasons ending in seven are often great ones for the club,” offers Des Hinks.

“There were the championships of 1936/37 and 1966/67, promotion and the League Cup semis in 1996/97 - and the ‘nine in a row‘ campaign was 2006/07.

“Not only that, but County have won the Cheshire Senior Cup this year. The last time we did so was in 1966 - and look what happened the following season!

“I tell you, it’s all falling into place...”