2014/2015 Season Review (Part 2)

Following on from his 2014/2015 Season Review (Part 1), Steve Davies completes his thoughts.

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At the end of Part One I left it just after Christmas, we were challenging and flirting with a play off place but sadly this was about as good as this season got.

I didn`t go to the games but defeats in February to Bradford and Worcester away (both 2-0 losses) and then Barrow at home when we lost 1-0 meant we ended up sitting about 7th in the league rather than 4th place where we would have been if we had won the away games.

I feel that this season was wasted and all the good work we did was lost purely down to the 2 away games.

I`ve said this so often that I promise this is the last time I say it – “our away form cost us the play offs this season”.

Never the less one away game I did enjoy was the Cheshire Cup Quarter Final game against Runcorn where we ran out 3-1 winners; I couldn`t help but think about what would have been if we played like this away from home all the time.

The game also showcased some younger talent we may see in the next few years.

With the season now coming to an end, in March we played Solihull Moors at home and won 1-0 due to a Scott Spencer goal.

I then made the short journey to Macclesfield to watch us play in the Cheshire Cup Semi Final in our last competition and chance for silverware, the banter between the fans was more entertaining than the game in parts but never the less they ran out 1-0 winners ending our cup run and finally going on to win the Cup themselves in the final.

The Saturday after saw us play Chorley at home and they won 2-0 outplaying us on our own pitch, this pretty much ended any (slim) play off hope some people might have had left.

I always hate a home defeat and even more so when they outplay us in every department.

Hyde FC were next and following on from the fact we couldn`t now get promotion, Hyde on the other hand couldn`t mathematically stay up meaning our away fixture against them at the end of March was really nothing but a friendly.

After we beat them 2-0 at home I had visions of this game being like a party atmosphere as I envisioned us being in a play off spot and maybe even relegating Hyde on their own turf in the process, again this wasn`t the way it worked out.

Never the less over 1000 county fans packed out the ground and we still took most of the 3 sides, the county faithful were singing in full force making for an excellent atmosphere.

It’s games like that when I think if were 1st in the league what type of atmosphere and attendance would we take?

Hyde seemed well up for it and had a fair few chances before the break, we went 1-0 up and in the second half it started to rain.

With 3 minutes of normal time left and after a sending off (believe it or not we were also playing better with 10 men then we did with 11) the heavens well and truly opened up and the referee deemed the pitch was too waterlogged making it unplayable.

By the way this took him 6 minutes to decide, so this meant it had to go to a panel to see if it needed to be replayed or if the score stood.

With Hyde pushing on twitter for another payday – sorry, I mean “replay” – we got word 4 days later that the match was to be played again at a (semi) discounted rate with the gate getting split 50/50.

Although Hyde`s season ticket holders still got in for free?

Over the Easter weekend we played away to Barrow on the Friday and at home to Oxford on the Monday, we lost 1-0 to Barrow and it was more a case of the same old same old when we lost 2-1 at home to Oxford pushing us down to 11th in the league.

I`d never wanted a season to be over so quickly before – which as a county fan is unusual considering we`re usually in a relegation battle and every game / point counts, but this season fizzled out quicker than the Rola Cola your Mum used to buy.

Gainsborough were the next team up at EP and apart from a Scott Spencer header they had the majority of the game running out 3-1 winners, after the weekend was over Alan Lord sadly stepped down as manager and Phil Brown took the reigns on the Monday as caretaker.

The day after the night before on the Tuesday – we played Hyde again in Phil`s 1st game in charge but this time we played them in the sun.

As only half of the attendance from the game that never happened made the short trip to out local neighbours, most found it ironic that Hyde had the sprinklers on right until kick off.

Both teams missed more changes than they took and with a goal either side in the space of a minute, the game ended in a 1-1 draw.

Onto the last game of the season saw us play the same team we played in the last home game of last season, Harrogate.

Last time we ran out 3-1 winners and expected a promotion push this season. This time we still won 2-1 but to be fair we didn`t deserve it, again Danny Hurst played a blinder and it was only down to a Danny Glover last minute header that we got the points.

Nothing less than a promotion push next season will now do, the general feel is that a lot of fans are getting fed up (these are the fans we have left by the way) and if we fail next season I dread to think what will happen.

As we go into close season we are still without a manager, the word is that about 35 people have applied and only 1 will succeed.

Now the season is over maybe a few other applicants will also put their hat into the ring, I really hope that we pick the strongest applicant rather than a fans favourite who will just sell tickets.

Some of the car keys I have heard being thrown into the ashtray so far are Gary Lowe, Liam Watson, Martin McIntosh, Mike Flynn, Phil Jevons, Jamie Milligan and Garry Flitcroft.

Who knows what the outcome may be, I`ve also heard that Pep Guardiola is leaving Bayern Munich at the end of the season but I guess the club are reluctant to employ another foreign boss after the Darije Kalezic disaster.

On Friday 1st May it`s the Stockport County player awards, I have my tickets for this and if you see me at EP please say hello.

In honour of this I have done my own awards for this season, sorry to the players though as the trophies are still in the shop ha ha.

[Awards for the season to be published separately]

On that note I will bid you all farewell for now. Keep the faith, next season might just be our year…


Steve Davies.