Since we last left Peter Withe's Stockport Saxons, they've played two matches and only managed to secure one of the available points. In the meantime, however, the club has added a couple of new players and some coaching assistance to give Withe a hand with the club.
On Tuesday, the club traveled to play Glossop North End, and hit their first "Oh yes, this is non-league football" snag of the season. Traffic on the highway to the match delayed members of both teams, and the kickoff was delayed by about 45 minutes. Once the match started, the Saxons came back from a 1-0 deficit to take a 1-2 lead on two goals by John Marsden, quickly becoming of the Saxon's stand-out players. They would not maintain the lead, however, as Glossop snagged a tying goal in the waning moments of the match. Nevertheless, all of the signs were positive for Stockport.
Saturday's match would not be so kind to the Saxons, as they lost a back-and-forth affair at AFC Blackpool by a score of 3-2. Ricky Anane and Tyron Sealy provided the goals for the Saxons, but it wasn't to be. The team now sits in 15th place in the NWCFL (out of 22 teams) after 5 matches played. The good news for the Saxons is that they appear to be a potent team and still have a (barely) positive goal differential. John Marsden and Gomez Dali especially seem to be potent striking forces.
Below, some bullet-point notes on the week that was for Stockport.
- The team signed Joey Dunn as assistant manager. He was previously the manager of Warrington Town, a Northern Premier League Division One North (8th level of the pyramid) team.
- Stockport bolstered their roster with the signings of Melford Knight and James "Jimmy" Ogoo. Knight seems to be the more experienced of the two, but Ogoo has something you don't often see at this level: international caps. He's played 5 times for his native Gambia.
- Brad Maylett, who was the captain of the previous incarnation of SSFC, has been ruled out for likely the entire season with a knee injury.
- Finally, the Saxons are making a real push to increase fan involvement. They took a bus of supporters with them to Blackpool and are pushing a plan to get a supporter's club with 1000 members. For £1/week, I'm contemplating joining the non-season-ticket part of that group. Why ever not?
The club's next match comes this afternoon as they travel to Winsford United for a 19:45 GMT kickoff. Come on you Saxons!