By Nathan Jackson
July 22 2010

If there's one team that needs a midtable season then it's Stockport County. To say their 2009/10 was tough would be like describing Katie Price as a bit media friendly, they only avoided defeat in 15 League games, but the future does look promising for the Hatters.

It's amazing what losing 3-1 at home to Lincoln City can do to your season. That's what happened to Stockport in December 2008. They had gone into the game on the back of a back run, a run that had seen them only pick up one point from their previous two League games and an FA Cup exit to Staines Town. A 3-1 defeat to City later and they were 16^th, it was their fifth home defeat from nine during the season and it looked as though they had a mountain to climb to manager to do anything with their season.

They destroyed Wycombe in the following game and never really looked back, winning 8 of their 11 games following on from that defeat to City. It wasn't long before they went on what they did better than anyone else at the time, not conceding goals. They only conceded once in eight games but went into the Playoffs on dodgy ground, losing two of their final four games. That didn't stop them though as they beat Wycombe 2-1 on aggregate in the Playoff Semi Finals, including a brilliant volley from Gleeson in the away leg. They won the final against Rochdale 3-2 to secure promotion in their third year of League Two life.

2008/9 was a mixed bag really, not doing badly until near the end when a run of just two wins in their final fourteen games, combined with a ten point penalty for going into administration, almost cost them dear. They were heading for a comfortable midtable position before that administration sent them hurtling towards the relegation zone. Fortunately for them they were still safe, for that season anyway.

Stockport endured a miserable year last season and were only really keeping in touch because of Baker, whom was heavily distracted by the medical condition of his brothers. Even though Stockport were bottom by ten points by the time he left in the New Year for Coventry, his departure realistically ended any chances they had of staying up. It certainly hadn't been helped by a mammoth twelve game losing streak that stretched from mid-October to beyond the New Year.

Infact, it took all the way up until February 20^th for the club to win again and you have to ask yourself, had it not been for Stockport's well documented financial situation, would Gary Ablett have been sacked a long time before he eventually left the club during the pre-season. They won again a week later but then lost all but two of their remaining games for the season. They ended the year with a whopping 31 defeats to their name, that's a special kind of crap.

Now they're back in League Two but the future could be looking a bit rosier for Stockport again now that they have been taken over by the 2015 group. Their first act was to get rid of Ablett and he was replaced a few weeks later with Paul Simpson, former manager of local rivals Rochdale.

Simpson has a mixed record in the division. He guided Rochdale to midtable mediocrity after they had made the Playoffs the year before.

He followed this by taking over after 4 games of Carlisle's 2003/4 season and guiding them to relegation, however, this in itself was followed by successive promotions. This earned him a move to Preston where he failed to achieve anything.

Shrewsbury were his next port of call and he took a distinctively average Shrewsbury to the Playoffs in his first full season, that despite winning just three away wins during that season. Infact, during his two year spell at Shrewsbury, he won just nine away games. 

As well securing the ever reliable Danny Swailes to a new contract and brought in Mark Lynch and Barry Conlon, a consistent enough striker at this level. In all fairness Stockport do have a fairly decent squad, although other than Conlon they don't appear to have a lot upfront, but their midfield could be amongst the best in the division.

I think that this season is all about consolidation for Stockport and once they get that losing mentality out of their system then they'll be fine. However, I don't really expect them to anywhere near the top half, but as I say, it's all about consolidation for the club so that they have something to build on the following season.

It's all about consolidation for Stockport

Discussion started by theimps.ka (IP Logged), 22/07/2010 19:58

theimps.ka
22/07/2010 19:58

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