Gricehead

Cameron and Friars return for the home game against Lincoln City, an occasion which marks Batty's 100th appearance for the club. He is presented with a special trophy before the game, and takes the applause from the gathered faithful. Of course, officially he is still on the transfer list, looking for a bigger club to come and take him away from all this, but to say there isn't an awful lot of interest would be an understatement.

For once, my scout doesn't tell me that Lincoln are a dangerous team. He doesn't seem to rate them at all. He obviously didn't watch their spectacular 5-4 victory over Leyton Orient on Tuesday. So, we know they can score goals, and we know they can ship them. Given that we have the same qualities in abundance, this should be interesting. Or it could be a 0-0 draw of course.

Well, Leo didn't score this time round, but he did set up a goal for Friars within 5 minutes. The ex-Carlisle player has the majority of the chances, because Lincoln fail to mark him, but he can't add to the scoreline. And neither can anyone else in one of the quietest games we've been involved in this season. Collins tackles his way to the man of the match award.

Division 3 Game 16. 25th October 2003
Stalybridge 1 Lincoln 0 Friars 5

Five wins on the trot equals our best previous run, which ended with a 1-0 defeat at Barnet of all places! I'm starting to feel good about the setup we have here, especially when coach Ashley Wilson refuses a job offer from second division Hull. Maybe we finally have some pulling power now. Whether that pulling power will be enough to keep hold of Dean Harris is a good question. I failed to notice the scouts from Wrexham at the last game, and they offer £100k up front. Harris' release clause is £230k, and I just know he's going to whinge if I don't give him the option to talk to them, so I try to get a large wad of cash from them. Hopefully they'll go away quietly and Dean won't think it's my fault.

Meanwhile, the press have caught on to our recent run of results. They're not giving me the right of reply yet, but they are using words like "steamrollering" which is hardly going to make it easy to get results, is it! Wrexham give up on Harris, but the young winger feels I'm obstructing him from leaving the club.

Poor Peter Brown gets a bad injury in a reserve game, which will keep him out of action for two months. Not that he gets much action anyway! Mackenzie is injured in the same game, but will only miss ten days.

Well, Wrexham come back in a couple of days later, with another £100k offer for Harris. With it now being the end of October, two awards arrive. The manager of the month for me, and the player of the month for Leo the "Prolific Striker".

Gricehead

We start November with a long, long trip to Torquay, now one place below us in 4th. It's comforting to know that even if we lose this we stay in 3rd place. For the second game in succession, my scout tells me there is nothing to worry about. In fact, one of their key defenders is out injured. We field the same team.

Torquay have three clear chances in the first 15 minutes, but they miss the target on each occasion. To make things more tricky, Challinor hobbles from the field and I have to shuffle the defence for the first time in quite a while. Elgert comes on and Burns moves across. Torquay score twice in five minutes whilst we are reorganising. To top off the worst half of football we've played this season so far, Torquay score a third. I can't remember ever giving the lads such a rocket at half time, and the underperforming Harris is told to get a shower as he's coming off. Maybe the transfer speculation is affecting him? Bastow comes on and we look like a different team. Two goals in two minutes and it looks as though we might just grab something, but Torquay shut up shop.

Division 3 Game 17. 1st November 2003
Torquay 3 Stalybridge 2 Russell 21 Graham 25,33 / Fortune-West 62 Bastow 64

Back at the office, I parcel up the Manager of the Month award and send it back to the League. Bloody things always bring bad luck. Dave Challinor's strained knee means we will miss him for three weeks. Time to reshuffle the defence.

A horrendous incident in training on the 3rd leaves the entire club in a state of shock. Matt Hocking is left unconcious after a clash of heads, and the paramedics take him away to hospital. The diagnosis is a fractured skull, and Hocking can count himself out for the rest of the season at least. He's lucky to be alive though, and I doubt he'll ever be able to head a ball quite the same way again.

Gricehead

The mood of the camp is lightened a little ahead of our trip to 5th place Shrewsbury, as Jason Batty receives another call to the New Zealand squad. Having missed out on the friendlies against Hong Kong and Mauritius in September and October, he is invited to join the squad to play Australia on the 19th. Harris comes to me to apologise for his outburst, which is all I wanted to hear. I tell him that he is forgiven this time, and would he like to go away and get his agent to look over this new contract proposal I have. I really need to get rid of his release clause, otherwise I'll lose him. Maybe not this season, but if he keeps on producing the goods he'll be snapped up sooner or later.

Back to matters in hand, and there are no changes for the game at Gay Meadow. Harris has perked up no end, and opens the scoring early on with a fine volley. We're pressuring the home defence, and everything looks rosy until Jaszczun picks up two yellow cards before half time. On comes Elgert at Ommel's expense, and with some quick reorganisation we survive until half time. It's going to be an uphill struggle in the second half though.

We discuss the situation during the interval and decide to try and contain their attacking threat in the second half. After all, if they get level then a draw isn't a bad result. Some extra marking details are arranged and the lads head back out to fight for the result. It looks to be working, as we restrict them to little more than the odd corner for the first 25 minutes, until Josh Walker dribbles past three players and struck a vicious shot into the top corner. From the restart, Paul Weller (not the rock musician) dribbled past two of the same three players before laying the ball off for Rodgers to put Shrewsbury in the lead. Unbelievable, and now of course we had to chase the game with ten men. We didn't even create another chance, and Rodgers put the icing on the cake with a last minute goal.

Division 3 Game 18. 8th November 2003.
Shrewsbury 3 Stalybridge 1 Walker 69 Rodgers 72, 89 / Harris 4 (Stalybridge's Tommy Jaszczun sent off, 38)

So, we swap places with the Shrews. Having watched the video of the game, I see no reason to appeal against Jaszczun's sending off. It's his first sending off at the club, so he receives an official warning, because it cost us the match. Also waiting on my desk when we get back to the Fold is a Fax from the FA with details of the Vans Trophy draw. We'll travel to Hull, currently struggling at the foot of the second division. I haven't decided yet whether it's a competition to take seriously this year.

Gricehead

With Stalybridge traditionally performing well in the FA cup, it's imperative that we put on a good show for the crowd in the first round, so as Aldo drops off another failed Youth product at the job centre, I sit down with the scout report and a large stack of notepaper. Notts County are currently managed by Craig Levein, and the Scotsman has earned them mid table respectability in Division 2. He's also managed to get Mark Hudson in on loan from Premiership Middlesborough, so my autograph book may well be needed again. There's a wealth of talent and experience in the squad he's assembled as well. Keith Gillespie and Mart Poom to name but two players with Premiership experience. The scout report, however, concentrates on their defensive abilities. Another puzzle for Leo to try and break down then.

McEwen in for Ommel is the only change I choose to make, and that's only because the cup appearance won't count towards the appearances clause in Dave's contract when it comes to paying off QPR. Ommel has done nothing wrong, and I'm sure he'll be back for the next league game. The cup atmosphere pervades the Bower Fold, as the Celtic run out as the underdogs again, in front of another big home crowd. 6463 to be precise.

We open the match the brighter of the two sides, and we've had one or two promising attacks before we open the scoring. It's that man Harris again, despite the fact he's rejected the contract we offered him, cleaning up after Leo's fierce drive was palmed away by the County keeper. County only really pressure us once in the next half hour, with a break away attack from our own setpiece, but it's Dave McEwen who opens his account for the season to put us 2-0 up with a bullet header on the end of a Friars cross. Rather than sit back and wait for half time, we're still looking to attack, and Friars could have had himself a hattrick had he taken all the chances on offer in the 6 minutes of first half stoppage time.

The extra long first half has taken it's toll on the lads, but really it's just a case of hanging on for the second isn't it? I don't make any major changes, just emphasising the need to mark up tightly and not get caught on the break, where we have looked a little vulnerable. The lads start the half on the break themselves though, and the County keeper can do nothing with McEwen's early shot but palm it out to the feet of Sean Friars. 3-0 and we're laughing, and Friars has 5 for the season! Cameron and Harris depart the scene, having done their work for the afternoon, but even that doesn't change our attitude as replacements Hart and Mackenzie combine to allow the ex Blackpool forward to open his account for the season. Finally, County start to show some interest in the game at 4-0 down, but they can't create anything, and Matt Williamson is having a storming game in defence. As the referee blows the final whistle, the crowd erupts, although the numbers have dwindled slightly as the County fans snuck away into the gathering gloom. Sean Friars picks up a well earned Man of the Match award, although it must have been a close call between four or five Stalybridge players.

FA Cup 1st Round. 15th November 2003
Stalybridge 4 Notts County 0 Harris 4 McEwen 38 Friars 47 Mackenzie 78

The chairman invites me to join him in his office and, as we sip Whisky and watch the goals on Match of the Day, he congratulates me on a job well done. This result shows just how far we've come in the two and a bit years I've been in charge!

The following day, we're together again, reflecting on just how unkind the draw for the cup can be. It's thrown up a tie that neither the players nor the fans will be looking forward to. Stalybridge are on their way to Cardiff. Ninian Park, actually.

Conference cup specialists Halesowen finally decide they are interested in one of my players, a fact I've been suspicious of since we played them in pre-season. Their target is Darren Atkinson, and their offer is £5k. The youngster has no future at the club, so I let them talk and the deal is as good as done. Despite being at the club since the middle of last season, he's not made a first team appearance, and has even failed to make the reserve side this campaign. But we wish him well in the future.

On the subject of playing staff, it is with great regret that I have to place Richard Peacock on the transfer list. Peacock, one of the original players at the club when I arrived, is whinging about wanting a new contract, and I really can't justify paying him the £500 p/w he is currently getting, never mind what he or is agent is asking for. At 31, he needs to be playing first team football on a regular basis, which is something I can't offer him.

Gricehead

There are other attempts at wheeling and dealing to bring players in during the week, but nothing immediate comes of them, so I don't announce anything publicly. Hartlepool visit the Bower Fold, but they have headed the wrong way down the table since knocking us out of the League Cup and currently lie 21st. As expected, my scouts still rate Gordon Watson as the chief danger. Unfortunately, he's not injured this time round though.

Jason Batty is back with the squad after his midweek trip to New Zealand. He sat on the bench for the entirity of the match in which his country somewhat surprisingly beat Australia 3-0. But jet lag doesn't have a thing on this man, with a mere 20,000 miles in less than a week being childs play and he declares himself fit to play. Jazsczun's suspension means Elgert starts on the left of defence and we're really scraping the barrel to find a defensive substitute. Their are selection dilemmas throughout the rest of the team, as Hart and Mackenzie are pressing for first team action after the FA Cup result, and I can hardly drop McEwen! As it is, Ommel, Mackenzie and Hart have to be happy with seats on the bench. A scout from Hull has shown up as well, presumably to cast an eye over Harris.

In front of 4600 plus fans, the first half was the most one-sided 0-0 draw I've ever witnessed. We pressured and pressured but couldn't put the ball in the net. Shot after shot rained down on Steve Banks' goal, but the keeper was equal to everything thrown at him. Hartlepool offered nothing in return, and we went in at the break happy with the performance, but slightly concerned by the fact we hadn't registered on the scoresheet.

So, it was perhaps not a surprise when Kevin Henderson broke free and lobbed Batty ten minutes into the second period. The extremely unbalanced scoreline was levelled by Cameron, showing another one of those inspirational flashes of brilliance that he is capable of. We were back on top again now, and for the next ten minutes normal service was resumed. The turning point of the match was an off the ball incident between Cullip and Watson, which the referee judged as a raising of arms against the defender, a red card offence. I felt comfortable that we could at least hold them for the remaining 18 minutes, so took off Friars to bring Cousins into defence. It took all of a minute for Ben Andrews to pick up a poor clearance by Williamson and slot home his first Hartlepool goal. Collins could have levelled the game in the final minute, but his header went wide from Harris' corner. We ended the match with statistics of 18 shots, 14 on target, so it's not surprising really that Hartlepool's keeper got the Man of the Match award.

Division 3 Game 19. 22nd November 2003.
Stalybridge 1 Hartlepool 2 Cameron 59 / Henderson 54 Andrews 73 (Stalybridge's Danny Cullip sent off, 72)

Cullip is fined a weeks wages for another dismissal which costs us the game, and 5th place.

Gricehead

The wheeling and dealing comes off, and I can finally announce that the empty place in the squad is filled by the signing of experienced striker Richie Barker from Rotherham for £70k. Barker is that desperate for first team football that he takes an astounding £5,300 p/w cut in wages to come to the Bower Fold. All being well that will conclude my spending for the season. He joins up with the squad in time for the trip to 7th placed Peterborough.

The good news is that Challinor is back to full fitness, and with Jaszczun back as well, there are some defensive selection dilemmas as well. Cullip is dropped, as I'm still furious with him for last Saturday, so Challinor will partner Williamson at the back. Barker comes in for McEwen up front, with Ommel on the bench in case the new lad can't stay the pace.

Barker may be the new man on the park, but it's Leo Fortune-West who is making the headlines. A free kick from Barker is headed down by Cameron and Leo volleys it home for his 15th goal of the season midway through the half. Two minutes before half time, he's on the end of the fourth Stalybridge corner of the afternoon and it's 2-0 Stalybridge. Not a bad scoreline to take into the break.

We go out to hit them hard at the start of the second half, and Barker gets an assist as he heads the ball to Friars to notch another goal. It's game over, with 35 minutes still to play! There's time for Leon McKenzie to pull one back with his 17th goal of the season, but not before we've really tested the Peterborough defence with more wicked Harris corners. Not surprisingly. Leo gets the Man of the Match award as we get back to winning ways!

Division 3 Game 20. 29th November 2003.
Peterborough 1 Stalybridge 3 McKenzie 76 / Fortune-West 22,43 Friars 55

And we're back up to 5th, as the table looks a bit like this after 20 games:
<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">********************************************* ************************************************** * English Third Division - Saturday 29th November 2003********************************************** ************************************************** ================================================== ============================================== 2003/4 Table============================================= ================================================== =Pos Team Pld Won Drn Lst For Ag Won Drn Lst For Ag Pts--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1st Swansea 20 7 2 1 19 5 7 2 1 24 15 46 2nd Oldham 20 5 4 1 13 6 7 0 3 16 16 40 3rd Shrewsbury 20 7 0 3 21 12 5 1 4 17 18 37 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------4th Torquay 20 7 1 2 23 16 4 3 3 18 18 37 5th STALYBRIDGE 20 5 2 3 20 14 6 0 4 19 17 35 6th Brentford 20 5 1 4 17 16 5 2 3 14 10 33 7th Bristol Rovers 20 4 4 2 20 15 5 1 4 14 19 32 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------8th Peterborough 20 2 5 3 14 14 6 0 4 20 16 29 9th Cambridge Utd 20 4 3 3 20 19 4 2 4 14 16 29 10th Bury 20 4 2 4 17 20 4 2 4 17 16 28 11th Bournemouth 20 5 3 2 19 11 2 3 5 6 11 27 12th York 20 6 1 3 17 13 2 2 6 10 20 27 13th Blackpool 20 3 2 5 12 13 4 3 3 11 12 26 14th Cheltenham 20 4 2 4 15 14 3 3 4 13 17 26 15th Doncaster 20 5 2 3 14 10 2 3 5 11 18 26 16th Plymouth 20 4 1 5 21 15 3 3 4 16 16 25 17th Rochdale 20 4 3 3 16 13 1 6 3 9 14 24 18th Lincoln 20 4 4 2 19 15 2 1 7 6 14 23 19th Leyton Orient 20 2 3 5 11 14 4 1 5 19 21 22 20th Southend 20 3 2 5 13 17 3 1 6 9 12 21 21st Hartlepool 20 3 3 4 9 11 1 5 4 14 17 20 22nd Mansfield 20 3 0 7 14 16 3 2 5 13 20 20 23rd Swindon 20 3 1 6 13 21 2 3 5 12 16 19 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------24th Scunthorpe 20 2 1 7 16 23 2 3 5 21 24 16 </pre>

Gricehead

Two more youth products who have failed to impress leave the club, essentially to free up "space" on the wage bill for Richie Barker (can you believe these young upstarts get an initial contract of £525 p/w these days? When I were a lad blah blah blah), whilst there are still a few contracts to sort out before the end of the season. Matt Williamson, Darren Bastow and Matt McNeil are all refusing to negotiate at the moment. Williamson I am surprised at, as he is holding down a first team place at the moment and seems quite happy. Bastow is being miserable. I thought I was doing him a favour by giving him some first team action early doors this season, but now he's sulking. If he's going to try brinkmanship with me, he's going to be in for a shock. You would think he'd have learnt after being released by Plymouth! McNeil, well, I offered him the chance of a move last season, but he professed a desire to stay at his beloved Stalybridge. Now his true colours are being revealed.

More defensive selection problems, as Challinor reports to Monday training with a sprained wrist. I send him off to the Physio, amidst chuckles from the other players. I need him to be fit for Saturday's FA Cup match at Cardiff, as Cullip will be serving his suspension. Dave McEwen makes my team selection that bit easier by twisting his knee and putting himself out of action for three weeks.

Challinor passes a fitness test, so there are no changes from the team who won at Peterborough. Cardiff manager Ian Butterworth has assembled a very strong squad. Hayden Foxe, Ian Breckin and Mark Fish have bolstered the defence, and they have the infamous Byron Bubb on the right wing. It's Byron Bubb who crosses from the right wing for Alex Rae to score his first goal for Cardiff in his third game for the club. With only 5 minutes on the clock, our careful defensive strategy is out the window. Cardiff are in control and ease there way through the rest of the half.

As soon as I get the lads in the dressing room I spell out our new tactics. I tell them to run at the opposition and get men forward, as there isn't anything to lose. Cameron and Leo both have early chances, but just before the hour mark Barker sends a ball into the area and Leo rises above Rae and heads past Maik Taylor to level the scores. Butterworth urged his side forward, but they seemed too shocked to take notice. We created a few chances, but it looked like we might have to settle for a replay. Mackenzie and Hart came on to freshen the midfield up a little, without creating anything new. But then Harris whipped a corner into the box and up popped wrist-man himself, Dave Challinor, leaving the keeper with no chance. Stalybridge were ahead! I urged my players back to defend, but even with Mackenzie having to go off with an injury, and the resulting reshuffle, Cardiff only created one more chance and Batty dealt with that comfortably. Leo took another Man of the Match award, but more importantly, Stalybridge were through to the 3rd round again!

FA Cup 2nd Round. 6th December 2003.
Cardiff 1 Stalybridge 2 Rae 5 / Fortune-West 59 Challinor 76

Mackenzie would be out for two weeks, but that couldn't dampen our spirits as we gathered in the club lounge to watch the draw for the 3rd round. Whilst obviously eager to see who we would draw, I also kept my eyes open for what my former non-league colleagues could pull out. They were a bit sparse this year, with only two clubs making it to the prestigious third round stage, and both pulled out home draws with first division opposition. Steve Evans' Boston United would host Coventry, whilst Steve Waywell's Leigh RMI, having dropped out of the conference in 2002, would face Millwall at Hilton Park. As for us? Well, history was repeating itself. We would get that chance to play Bolton at the Bower Fold that was denied us last year.

Gricehead

There's only a certain amount of time we can spend looking forward to the big cup tie, though, as it's Vans Trophy time, and therefore time to travel to Hull. There will be changes, not least because we've got a tricky away tie at Doncaster in four days time. In come Elgert, Cullip, Marsden, Toms, Hart and Ommel for Burns, Williamson, Collins, Harris, Cameron and Barker. It's a fairly strong side, but probably not strong enough to see off second division opposition!

We certainly bother the second division opposition after four minutes when Leo slots past the Hull keeper! And that about sums up the match, Hull must certainly have put out a weakened side, as this couldn't be the level of quality in the second division, could it? Leo, again, got the champagne.

Vans Trophy Northern Section 1st Round. 9th December 2003.
Hull 0 Stalybridge 1 Fortune-West 4

The draw for this competition is a little lower key. In other words, it's not televised, or on the Radio. We find out, by fax, that we will travel to Division 2 Macclesfield in the next round.

There's the little matter of a trip to Doncaster, promoted from the Conference the year before us, to deal with. They managed 4th place last season, but are struggling mid table this time around. The first eleven return from their break and get straight stuck into the opposition. Jaszczun sets up Friars for the first ten minutes in. Continuing to attack, Harris got his 5th goal of the season at the second attempt, despite a great save from Dunn in the Doncaster goal. Harris got to another rebound to claim his second before half time, and it was another game well and truly won. We eased through the second half, with Ommel and Hart taking to the field. The deposed Ommel showed he was still on form by slotting home another ball spilled by the keeper. Nice! Harris won the man of the match award, his first of the season.

Division 3 Game 21. 13th December 2003.
Doncaster 0 Stalybridge 4 Friars 11 Harris 37,43 Ommel 75

That takes us back to 3rd.

Gricehead

Our last match before Christmas sees us heading just down the road to Bury and the scouts are still telling me that their Indian striker is the one to watch. There's no need to make any changes as everyone is raring to go after the demolition of Doncaster. If we can win this one, we can enjoy our turkey.

This match, however, was to be a completely different kettle of fish. We had our usual early pressure, but Bury kept us out and by the half hour mark they were starting to apply pressure of their own. Shortly after the half hour mark, Andreas Dahl, on loan from Coventry, popped up to tap home a rebound, his first Bury goal! I wasn't too concerned. After all, we'd shown before that we could come back from this sort of setback. When the score was the same at half time, I was starting to get just a little worried.

Still, don't make rash decisions. It's a sort of mantra, and I made sure I recited it to myself a few times before giving the lads some words at half time. Whilst keeping the close marking we utilise away from home, I ask the lads to think a little more attack minded. We find a way back into the match when the Bury keeper Pettersson fouled Leo in the area. Our super striker got himself up and dispatched the penalty to keep his goal count steadily mounting. Twelve minutes later our pressure really paid off, as Collins grabbed a rare goal from a rebound. That felt better! It was just a case of holding on for 25 minutes. We thought we'd managed it until a minute from the end when Nugent put the ball in our net. Fortunately the linesman came to our rescue, and we ran out of Gigg Lane with all three points.

Division 3 Game 22. 20th December 2003.
Bury 1 Stalybridge 2 Dahl 32 / Fortune-West 53(pen) Collins 65

Wrexham spoil the Christmas party by sending an offer of £140k for Dean Harris. I negotiate a slightly lower deal than last time, in the hope that both parties can be appeased. Wrexham aren't interested, but fortunately it seems that Harris isn't that bothered.

Merry Christmas!

SoS

good results :thup:

In my story, those two youngsters you released would be straight in my first team