Share-ing the co op

Welcome to 2015 and let`s hope this one is a good year for yourselves and for County, I trust if you have made any New Year Resolutions that you are sticking to them and if you have ditched the fags, joined a gym or cut back on the hooch – that you are all doing well and carry on for this week.

I myself decided to do my own version of “Dry January”; this was where I only drank on match days / weekends.

I called it “Moist January” which lasted a good 20 days before one particularly difficult day at the office made me stop at the off license on the way home.
Oh well you win some you loose some?.to be honest it wasn`t even a difficult day – I just really fancied a beer.

Anyway off the pitch a few things have happened that I wanted to mention, Belezika has been sent out on Loan to Linfield (no I don`t know where that club is either), Scott Spencer had to take to Twitter to address rumors he was leaving the club (doesn`t take much to set them off these days with social media), the shares that were promised to the Co-Op via the players fund are finallyon the way over and it only takes a few defeats for the “Lord Out” brigade to get in voice.

It seems funny to hear people calling for Lord`s headand I admit, we haven`t had the best of runs recently, but we are still fighting for a play off place for the first time in about 7 years.

We are at the point of the season where we should be getting behind the team for the final push – but I will speak about this later.

Never the less it`s far too easy to play a few games of football manager then get behind a keyboard gettingyour “Brian Clough” on.

My view on Lord – for what its worth – is that he`s doing a good job.

People need to move on from wanting Gannon back, stop living in the past and get behind the team.

Since my last article we have played Colywn Bay (twice), lost to both Tamworth and Gainsborough, threw away a 2 goal lead against Wrexham and then proceeded to get hammered in the replay. We also beatLeamington 4-2 on the Saturday just gone after again throwing away another two goal lead.

It`s a mixed bag of results really but if I`m being honest it`s a slump that we hopefully have turned a corner.

When we won on Saturday it was the first league game we have won at home since November, we need to bring back “fortress Edgeley”.

I almost joined the Supporters Cooperative (Co-Op) lastweek; it`s been a ongoing issue with myself to decide if or why I should join, and one that I have been trying to decide for the past 3 or 4 years what to do.

Its not like I`ve not wanted to?..I just couldn`t find a valid reason why I should.

I asked a man who was handing out co-op leaflets about 2 seasons ago what benefits it has and I was met by a blank look.

I also posted a question on Yellowboard (when I used to read it) a while back asking why I should join and what the reasons are but again I didn`t get any answers just general moaning. So I looked on the website but again – I must be thick because I couldn`t work out why I should join?

Now I have come to my own conclusion that I will now explain?

If you put money into the players fund – for every £2 you donate – a £1 share is donated back from a shareholder to the co-op.

And after putting my own money in the players fund on more than one occasion, I feel that some of these shares are kinda in a roundabout way??mine.

Now with that being the case “I” (or as it may be the”co-op”) now own some of the football club, and I want to be part of this and make sure that I know about any decisions that may or may not happen.

So on this basisand this basis only I am joining the co-op this week. I`ll keep you all posted.

Now onto the up and coming fixtures, we have sixteen games left this season to finish in a top 5 position, out of the SIXTEEN games TEN of these are against teams who are lower than us in the league.

The next two games are against teams who are ABOVE us in the league, Saturday we have Boston away and on Tuesday we have Barrow at home.

If we get a draw away and ahome win I will be happy. We then play Stalybridge and Hyde both at home (6 points will do nothing less), and then have three away games on the bounce to teams who are all below us in the league with *Bradford, Worcester and Brackley before the end of the month.

The way I have working it out is if we draw against Boston, beat Barrow, Staly and Hyde that means we`re going into the 3 away games with ten points from twelve which is pretty good.

I fully believe that our season has now reached a part or even a peak where it`s possibly all going to come down to these three away games.

If our away form doesn`t improve then it`s another season in the Conference North, but if we can string a few games together then we could be in a position to be smiling come March.

On paper there is no reason we shouldn`t be beating these teams but hey – that would be far too easy.

* If you make the trip to Bradford PA please take the time out have a look inside the ground as they have some very interesting memorabilia where the bar is and please – no conga`s like last season.



I O COUNTY


Steven Davies