The thoughts of Director Dan Levy
It’s always hard to sit down at my PC and think what to write when it’s my turn to write this bit of the programme. It would be great to be able to come up with something that is new and exciting, informative and interesting, and which with any luck contains a bit of humour and helps readers feel that they understand a bit more about their club. I’m not sure that I have ever managed all those things, but I’ve always tried.
On this occasion I am not even going to try to write such an article. I’m going to do what Basil Fawlty accused Sybil of doing, and try to get a PhD in the “bleeding obvious”.
Stockport County are good. Very good. We are playing the sort of football that makes us all proud to be County fans. And even when we have an off-day, and things don’t go completely to plan, we are still playing better than I’ve seen us play for a decade and getting the results the club needs. I think it goes without saying that we owe a huge debt of gratitude to Messrs Gannon and Ward and to the players for the way our season has been transformed.
It also goes without saying that the club wouldn’t be heading in the direction it is without the fans. County’s fans have been extraordinary both here and away, as we always are. When Aidy Boothroyd at Watford said watching us he thought it was like being in the San Siro, he wasn’t just being polite. It was an awesome sight. As the players keep on saying, the fans do make a difference.
We are expecting a large crowd tonight to watch County take on Walsall, who have been impressive in our division so far this season. And we are setting a challenge to the people of Stockport to get 50,000 people through the gates of Edgeley Park in our remaining seven matches scheduled here, including tonight. It’s a big challenge, but I firmly believe that we are starting to get the people of Stockport to get behind their club. I would urge everyone here to try to get friends, family and colleagues at work, school and college to experience the fantastic atmosphere here and to enjoy the excitement on and off the pitch.
Finally, could I welcome the fans, players, directors and staff of Walsall to Edgeley Park. Walsall is in many ways a similar club to County, situated as it is in a large metropolitan area with lots of other clubs, in higher divisions, situated nearby. It too is proving that it can offer better football than the local big clubs. And Walsall’s fans are fantastic too – one of my many abiding County memories is of standing in the M6 end at the Bescot Stadium in the last game of the season when we were relegated from what’s now Division One, with our fans being applauded by almost all of the Walsall fans who had gone onto the pitch, where we’d kept singing for 90 minutes in the face of a rather drab match and disappointing scoreline.
You don’t get that at Villa Park or City of Manchester!