If the 1990s birthed a football revolution in Manchester on the back of the Madchester scene, then maybe Stockport is now experiencing its own scene change thanks, in no small part, to the rise of the Mad Hatters.
Let’s start with the football facts. Stockport County are five points clear at the top of League Two, stealing the Hollywood limelight from Wrexham thanks to a club record run of 12 successive victories in all competitions.
After the agony of a penalty shootout defeat by Carlisle United in League Two’s playoff final last season, manager Dave Challinor and his squad have re-established their momentum. A photograph of their losing changing room at Wembley is pinned to the wall of the training-ground canteen as a reminder – “it’s our motivation,” says striker and top goalscorer Isaac ‘Tanto’ Olaofe. “We know how it felt last time so let’s not have the same feeling, let’s push past that.”
Promotion to League One is by no means the height of Stockport’s ambition. Upon appointing Challinor in November 2021, the chief executive, Jonathan Vaughan, hailed “the start of our comeback story” – and they duly won promotion to the Football League as champions that season. The Cheshire-based businessman Mark Stott had bought the club in 2020 and plotted a course up the leagues, with a seven-year plan to reach the Championship. After six seasons in the doldrums of the National League North, it would be some story.
In the sixth tier, while some rivals had crowds of 300, County drew 3,000 or more. They are now attracting nearly 10,000 every week and aim to expand Edgeley Park’s capacity to 20,000 as they tap into Stockport’s meteoric rise as a town in recent years, with plans to include 30,000 sq ft of flexible workspace in the new stand.
Read any current list of ‘top places to live’ and you’ll see that Stockport, with its fresh influx of trendy bars, restaurants and coffee shops, and helped by the prominence of the local band Blossoms, is well placed, literally and figuratively. The club is also ideally located near the railway station and gets crucial support from the clued-up Stockport Council, which is as eager as Stott and Vaughan to see the club prosper.
A Championship-standard training facility has been acquired in the shape of Manchester City’s former Carrington base and with players such as former Millwall forward Olaofe, Aston Villa loanee Louie Barry and former Manchester United man Nick Powell, the only way appears to be up. Challinor, a former defender for the club in the 2000s and County’s most successful manager ever with a win percentage of 59%, definitely thinks so.
“From my perspective, it’s good to be somewhere where there’s a plan and there is an expectation to try to be successful,” he says. “I’d much rather be somewhere where there’s hope and expectation to get promoted, rather than to tread water. We look at Stockport as a town but a really big town where there’s scope to be able to increase the fanbase and the size of the stadium.”
It’s an exciting place for the players, too, as Olaofe can attest. Since arriving in January, the 23-year-old has felt the love from the fanbase, Challinor and the club’s engaged hierarchy.
“One of the major factors in me signing for Stockport was the vision of the club: they sat me down and told me where they want the club to be in the next five years,” he says. “Once we sell out the stadium every week, we can continue to grow, and with us winning so many games, I’m sure more supporters will come each week.
“I know the visions Stockport County have for Edgeley Park and how they want to expand the stadium. So if the team does well, it will reflect on the community. Hopefully from there, they can continue to grow the area and make a name for ourselves. We’re slowly doing that, but there’s a long way ahead to accomplish it.”
When Stockport last lined up in English football’s second tier, in 2001-02, Manchester City were alongside them. It’s fair to say the clubs experienced juxtaposing fortunes in the two decades that followed, but no longer is this a quest to escape from the shadow of the Manchester behemoths. Stockport is a burgeoning town in its own right and County are no longer a second club for casual fans of United or City.
“What they can’t offer is that traditional matchday experience: a stadium with an old-school feel and where the prices are reasonable,” said Vaughan in May. The stadium renovation will not alter the intimidating Cheadle End, from which the bulk of the Hatters’ noise emanates on Saturdays, a stand visible from the train line into Manchester.
The next stop on the track for Challinor’s team is Swindon on Saturday, where Stockport will hope to make it a lucky 13 wins on the spin. “We’re going to hit hard points, we’re going to have tough games,” says Olaofe. “It’s about bouncing back the following week.”
On and off the pitch, Stockport County are certainly bouncing back.
