Money can’t buy you class (of ’92)

As I sit here and write this article the suns out and the sky is blue, surprising for a day in near mid October. Another thing that`s surprising is the positivity surrounding the hatters and the recent run that has seen us take 6 wins in the last 9 games.

Since my last article I wrote about a slight slump that had many people feeling that this season would yet again be another write off, then something seem to change.

After beating Hyde in the FA Cup we made the short journey to Ashton where in my opinion we dominated the first half yet failed to find the net, disaster struck with less than 20 minutes to go when we found ourselves 1-0 down.

This is usually how it plays out and the same story that haunts our club but like I said, something seems to have changed. With just over 5 minutes left on the clock defender Minihan headed in from a Marsden cross to level the score and grab his first County goal, Curzon Ashton were on the ropes and with almost the last touch of the game Clarke (another defender) managed to shoot through their defence to grab a late late winner and all 3 points.

Then we played Fylde in the postponed match from the “Manchester storms” who were topping the table, we put in a match winning performance and when Scott Spencer scored in the 93rd minute to make it 1-1 it looked like we ground out a decent result.

Then came a 96th minute winner from Fylde that nicked the game 2-1, the ref must have been playing till they scored? Anyway putting that aside I felt like a proud parent watching us battle and even though we lost – we had a feeling like we won.

The boys did us proud.

We drew Salford (media darling) City in the FA Cup which I was gutted about, not because they are owned by the class of `92 who seem to look at football as just a hobby by throwing more money in than any other team – but because we were playing them the week later in the league.

So cue the BBC knocking on our door (I thought they had forgot about us) to film a small piece on Salford City in the lead up to the game, Jon Keighren summed them up perfectly when he said at County we “wash our own face” rather than relying on millionaires to plug any gaps.

So as Gary Neville and Paul Scholes “slummed it up” at EP we continued our cup run with a 2-0 win, considering they are above us in the league you would never have guessed it on the pitch. A first half penalty by Danny Lloyd and a 2nd half goal from Michael Clarke meant we progressed in the cup and claimed the prize money, well its not like Salford are short of cash…

7 days later Neville and Scholes came back to EP to watch money bags Salford try to avenge the loss from the week before, this time Salford scored within 6 minutes to take the lead but yet again with our new found determination we didn`t give up.

It was ex Salford boy Gary Stopforth who seemed to take revenge on his old club who found the net on the half hour mark to make it 1-1.
Max Cartwright who was making his debut was brought on and after 13 minutes on the pitch took a chance from a corner, making it a debut to remember he found the net and put us 2-1 in front and also winning us the game.

I don`t know if Gary Neville is sick of the sight of us but I can tell you this, he probably hasn`t enjoyed the last few weeks and wont want to come back to EP in a hurry.

So next up on the agenda we have another FA Cup game but this time against a team a few leagues lower, we play Bishop Auckland this Saturday and if we win we also get (I think) £12,500 in prize money. Also if we win on Saturday we enter the FA Cup 1st round for the first time since we dropped out of the football league in 2012, we could also draw a decent team in the football league to generate some more income.

Then a 3rd round tie against a premiership club? Now I`m just getting giddy…



Steve Davies