Well worth 52-year wait for our title!
52 years is a long time to wait for a Championship winning season – but when it comes it’s well worth the celebrating!
This season, it’s fair to say, has had its ups and downs but for everyone connected with Stockport County 2018-19 will live long in the memory.
The final game of this most remarkable of seasons ended at the Liberty Stadium, Nuneaton but the neutral, if indeed there were any, would have thought that this was a home fixture for the mighty County.
Over 3500 of the faithful took over the ground enmasse, credit here has to be given to the home supporters and their club for allowing us to take over their ground, I can think of a few clubs in this division that would have put obstacles in our way and denied us the chance to celebrate but credit to Nuneaton for allowing us a party.
The game itself was difficult, if only for the weather conditions, early rain and continuous wind didn’t bode well and the first victory of the afternoon was the winning of the toss which allowed us to play with the wind at our backs.
That allowed us to camp out in the opposition half for the whole of the first period.
We dominated the game and had several decent chances before Ash Palmer headed us in front, cue mass relief and the noise level went up a notch.
The second came way via the skill and individualism of player of the season Matty Warburton, a beautiful turn, run and shot from the edge of the box that left the home keeper grasping at air, 2-0, surely the title was ours!
In the second half we continued to dominate, even playing into the wind we pressed the Borough into continual defence and when the third came, by way of a real goal of the season contender from Adam Thomas, well “there are people on the pitch; they think it’s all over” and as a competition, it was.
The referee didn’t bother with any extra time, as soon as the ball got near the tunnel he gave the home keeper a signal to get out of the way before the hordes invaded the pitch and start to celebrate...as if we’d won the title.
You can forgive the pitch invasion, it happens at every promoted club in the country.
I don’t know why they didn’t decide to use the balcony for the presentation earlier, it made perfect sense.
But whinging aside, we are the supporters of a championship team and I for one would like to thank Jim, Dave, Ben Ian, Dan, Sam, Scott, Ash, Jamie, Jordan, Sam, Paul, Adam, Elliot, Darren, Jake, Matthew, Frank and Nyal. Richard, Steve, Gary and John for giving Kate and I the best anniversary ever, April 27th 2019 will live long in the memory, thank you one and all.
Enjoy your summer and I’ll see you pre-season.