How I found the true soul of football after my club’s slide into bitterness and relegation

YES, I remember Aggborough. It was late April when Stockport County played there, unwontedly, on the last day of another miserable season. It was 2013 and the club were still in freefall, still coming to terms with the fact that they had lost their Football League status in 2011 after 106 unbroken years. The only way was down.

All of us have memories of a moment we consider a low point for our club. That was mine. Eleven years after they had been in what is now the Championship, Stockport needed to beat Kidderminster Harriers to avoid relegation to the Conference North, the sixth tier of the English football pyramid. We lost 4-0. Some of our fans invaded the pitch and a Kidderminster player was attacked.

The players were led off the pitch. Play was suspended for 31 minutes. The atmosphere in the away end was ugly and resentful and angry. The club had been betrayed or mismanaged by a series of owners and now it felt like they were dying. Police arrived, encircled the away end and drew their batons. My daughter’s hand gripped mine a little more tightly. She had just turned 11.

Back in the Eighties, when Stockport were in the old Fourth Division, I used to think falling out of the League would be the end of the world but the longer County stayed in the National League North and the National League, the more I realised that was foolishness and that, actually, non-League football embodies much of what is best about our game and its sense of community.

Stockport’s 11 years out of the Football League gave me the chance to visit clubs such as Solihull Moors, Altrincham, Histon, Bromley, Wrexham, Chorley, Kidderminster, Brackley Town, Oxford City, Forest Green Rovers, Stalybridge Celtic and FC United of Manchester, proud clubs who had more soul than a lot of teams several divisions above them.

SOUL isn’t about how much money your club have or what division they are in and the truth is that Stockport’s years in the National League reinvigorated the club and reconnected them with their core support. It made people realise how precious they were to the community so that when their fortunes turned after years of being exploited, they were propelled upwards again by a surge of popular support.

County got a huge slice of luck when local businessman Mark Stott bought the club and transformed every aspect of their infrastructure. Stott, who last month wiped out the £7.7 million the club owed him, invested money in new players but just as importantly, he showed how much he valued the loyalty of the supporters by making sweeping improvements to the facilities at Edgeley Park, which had been neglected for years. Stockport’s revival owes much to Stott and to the club’s manager, Dave Challinor, but it is also part of a bigger picture of a remarkable renaissance in non-League football.

Wrexham averaged nearly 9,000 fans for games at the Racecourse Ground last season, Stockport more than 7,000, Notts County and Chesterfield more than 6,000 and Southend and Grimsby Town more than 5,000.

A couple of months ago, more than 10,000 fans packed into the stadium to see Stockport beat Halifax Town and return to the Football League for the first time in 11 years. They will play their first match back in League Two next Saturday when Barrow visit Edgeley Park as a new English football season begins. Another capacity crowd of more than 10,000 is expected.

Stott is expecting many of County’s home games to be sellouts. The club have sold more than 5,500 season tickets for the coming campaign in League Two, more than they ever sold when County were in the second tier of the English game and hosting Manchester City. The club sold more than 3,000 shirts on the day they launched their new kit.

‘It’s been insane,’ says the County owner. ‘I know a lot of our fans don’t want City and United fans to migrate over but a lot of kids who are maybe between five and 15, their allegiances aren’t fully formed yet and maybe they will be starting to think that they would like to support their local team. People are a bit disillusioned with the big clubs, which helps to explain some of the attendances in the National League last season.’

When Stott bought the club, he said he wanted Stockport to be in the Championship in seven years. ‘Two and a half years in and we’re in League Two,’ he says. ‘I might be wrong but we’ll get promoted to League One this season. But League One to the Championship is the biggest leap to make.’

STOTT is brimming with optimism. Part of that is because television revenue leaps from £90,000 a season in the National League to £1.1m in League Two. Part of it is because County have strengthened a formidable squad. Part of it is because promotion to League Two means that league rules stop Stockport’s youth team players being poached by big clubs for nothing.

The club are to build a state-ofthe-art academy facility and are to apply for planning permission to extend the Railway End at Edgeley Park. Eventually, the plan is for the stadium capacity to reach 20,000.

The hope is that the club will attract more of the area’s talent. Phil Foden grew up a few hundred yards from Edgeley Park. ‘Sooner or later, this has to be sustainable,’ says Stott. ‘We have a great training

ground. Manchester City won the Premier League training on that. We can become a powerful force locally for youngsters. The vision is to bring through local talent and fill the stadium every week.’

The home game with Barrow on Saturday is the next stage of the rebirth. It is all a long way from that April afternoon at Aggborough.