Stockport County created one of the stories of the FA Cup’s first round, defeating League
Two’s Yeovil Town 3-1 away from home to reach the
second round for the first time since 2009. Stockport have been in sharp decline. In 1998,
they finished eighth in the Championship and, despite suffering a series of relegations,
had won promotion back to League One as recently as
2008. Unfortunately, before the beginning of the 2009-10 season, owing to a failure
to service debts and meet tax obligations, the club were
placed into administration, forcing the departure of several key players and the redundancy
of manager Jim Gannon. Unsurprisingly, Stockport would lose 36 of
41 matches during the following campaign, finishing
bottom of League One. But there was worse to come. The club officially exited administration
in 2010, having been rescued by a consortium
known as The 2015 Group, which consisted of local
business people and fans. Nevertheless, the 2010/11 season brought a second successive
relegation and, with it, Stockport lost their Football League status after 106 years.
It was a period of bizarre decisions which deepened the fractures between the club and
its fanbase. Following Gannon’s departure, the
club employed five permanent managers in twoand- a-half years, including a curious spell with
Dietmar Hamann in charge, in which he won three from 19 matches. Gannon himself would
return in November 2011 for a fourteen-month spell which would end in dismissal in January
2013. The change didn’t arrest the club's decline,
though, and County would burn through a further manager in Darije Kalezic, who would last
just two months, before finishing a season which
would end with a further relegation under Ian Bogie. By 2013, County had fallen all
the way down to the Conference North, the level at
which they remain to this day. Stockport had bottomed out.
Off the field, the root of their decline can be traced back to the aftershocks of ITV Digital’s
collapse, but also, more specifically, to 2005. Then-owner Brian Kennedy, a Scottish
millionaire who also owned rugby union’s Sale Sharks,
sold County to their supporters’ trust for £1.
Crucially though, that sale did not include Edgeley Park, Stockport’s home, and the
club were thereby committed to paying £12,5000/month
for the privilege of playing in their own ground.
By 2009, with their hand forced by worsening finances, the training ground had also been
sold, leaving Stockport to prepare for matches at
a local sports centre. More importantly, it left the
club without proper infrastructure or any real assets.
The Hamman episode encapsulated the dysfunction. The former Liverpool midfielder had been
installed at the urging of a consortium hoping to complete a takeover. However, it stalled
and failed, leaving the German without adequate
backing and leading to his resignation because of,
what he described as, “broken promises”. While a recovery should have began in 2010,
visible signs of organisational clarity didn’t really
emerge until 2015, with the publication of the Moving Forward document. By March of that
year, many of the directors associated with The
2015 Group had become inactive and, with a few
notable exceptions, had agreed to write off debts owed to them by the club. By March of
that year, County were under the control of a small
group of five directors, including current chairman Richard Park.
The aims stated within Moving Forward were ambitious but clear: by 2020, Stockport County
hoped to: -Turn the club into a sustainable and profitable
organisation. -Use healthy living and leadership initiatives
to engage with 80,000 local school and college students.
-To have generated £1.5m in commercial income. -To have returned to the Football League.
Even prior to 2015 the improvements were possible to track. From making annual losses of
around £800,000 in 2012, by the time of the document’s publication that figure had been
reduced to under £100,000. By the time the financial results for 2016-17 were announced,
Stockport were actually able to show a profit. In a club statement of the time, the County
directors cited “increased tickets sales, commercial revenue and success on the pitch”
as being behind that improvement.
The biggest challenge remains Edgeley Park, the re-acquisition of which was a further
aim. With the ground threatened by demolition in 2015,
Stockport Council agreed to a £2m purchase. While promising no financial support to the
club and still seeking a competitive lease, it has at
least guaranteed that County will remain in their traditional home for the foreseeable
future, albeit it at considerable monthly cost.
This relative, infrastructural stability is incubating improvement on the field. Having
finished 8th in National League North in 2017, the club
finished 5th in the table last season, losing to
Chorley in the playoffs. This year, Barnet ultimately put paid to their FA Cup ambitions,
defeating them 1-0 in December, but Jim Gannon - who
returned for a third spell in charge in 2016 -
currently has the side second in the table and contending for promotion.
The Football League may not quite be in reach yet and a return to fully professional status
will prove another challenge yet, but having seen
their club meet public targets over the past few
years, Stockport County supporters do finally have reason to believe in their future.