Richard Hawley

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PostPosted: Tue Dec 08, 2009 11:14 pm 
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Hawley Groupie

Joined: Wed Jul 18, 2007 10:43 pm
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Location: Stockport
After 127 years it seems that my club Stockport County are on its last legs.

Why? because a wealthy businessman called Brian Kennedy bought the club so his rugby team Sale Sarks could play at Edgeley Park. To placate a suspicious fan base, at the time of purchase he claimed he would run the football on equal footing.

It was lies, within a year or so he sold off the football side to the supporters, claiming it was a philanthropic gesture. Sale Sharks drew up the contract of the sale which essentially stripped the club of all its assets, sacked all the backroom staff associated with the football club, threw the football club out of their shop and demanded 30% of all transfer income.

The club is now in meltdown, we have been in administration since the summer, no investor will touch the club because Sale Sharks took away its only asset. We used to have one of the best pitches in the league,it's now probably the worst thanks to the rugby.

The final insult was Sharks used a cherry picker on the pitch to put advertisng on the roof of the stadium. This has irreperably damaged part of the pitch and Stockport County have had their last 3 games postponed (including tonight).

The adminsitrators bill is now 400,000. It is believed in January they will sell the remaining salable players and wind up the club.

I know few on here will give a toss which is fair enough but if you are a supporter of a lower league club do not allow a rugby club anywhere near it.


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PostPosted: Tue Dec 08, 2009 11:50 pm 
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That stinks Ricky. Knew County were in a bad way but didn't realise it had come about like that. Don't ever give up hope. 11 years ago we (Donny) were dead in the water but look at us now. You'll not be the first club to be shafted over your ground, hopefully you'll find a way back.

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PostPosted: Wed Dec 09, 2009 12:10 am 
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Hawley Groupie

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Location: Stockport
Cheers for that. The Donny story has been discussed in the pub pre match, that was unbelievable stuff, there was a Stockport connection with one of the directors I seem to recall and not a good one, and the the stadium was burnt down??...that gives us some hope looking at you now, fantastic.

Problem is we don't have a wealthy fan since Mike Yarwood's career went tits up.

Best of luck to Donny Rovers!


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PostPosted: Wed Dec 09, 2009 12:57 am 
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Ricky wrote:
Problem is we don't have a wealthy fan since Mike Yarwood's career went tits up.


Our 'wealthy' fan made his money from tits. Melinda Messenger's to be precise. Well not just hers but she became the face that sold a thousand more of his boob jobs.

Our former owner/chariman who attempted to burn the main stand dwon in an insurance job had a puppet by the name of Mark Weaver who he made general manager (and for a few weeks near the end of their reign team manager!). Legend has it that Weaver's entire background in football had previously consisted of selling lottery tickets for Stockport County. He even brought in Danny Bergara for a time. Danny was in a no win situation managing a team consisting mainly of stooges picked up from various non-league clubs in the North West and a handful of kids who'd have struggled to get a game on their own X Box. His masterplan conisted of switching players numbers around to try and confuse the opposition (back in the wonderful days of a team playing in shirts numbered 1-11). i.e. he'd have a striker wearing the no.2 shirt, centre halfs wearing numbers 8 and 9. Surprisingly it failed spectacularly...

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PostPosted: Wed Dec 09, 2009 4:51 am 
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Hawleytastic!

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Sorry to hear that Stockport are up shit creak at the moment. I really hope it works out for you.

My mate is a Stockport fan and we had quite clash of comments when we (Burnley) played you at Wembley..I think around 93/94. Though we did get relegated the next season! and my Stockport mate made me a special 'The Burnley going down Commemorative Tape' which I still have.

So from days at Wembley together, it's really weird hearing all this stuff.

In 1987, Burnley nearly dropped out of the football league on the last game of the season. Now at least for this season, we're in the Prem.

So who knows? Something really positive might happen yet.

Accrington Stanley very nearly went under the other week..through complete incompetence. Now up and rolling again and also playing very well.

As ever I wish us football fans could press a magic button and help you guys. All the best and there are people away from Stockport really routing for you!

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PostPosted: Wed Dec 09, 2009 5:49 pm 
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Hawley Groupie

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Location: Stockport
Our 'wealthy' fan made his money from tits. Melinda Messenger's to be precise. ...[/quote]

That is fantastic, I'm sure you thought tits were great anyway but they saved your club too, marvellous..........tits of a very different kind are proving to be our undoing.

Cheers for encouargement though, we had a few ding dongs with Burnley in the past but we are so shit now we can't be bothered having banter with anyone.

For a depressing flavour of how County fans are dealing with it visit www.yellowboard.co.uk


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PostPosted: Tue Dec 22, 2009 1:23 pm 
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I'm a Brentford fan and our wealthy fan made his money out of betting on football! We had a situation a few years back when Ron Noades bought the club as some kind of plaything - appointing himself as manager. While we were winning he seemed to be pumping loads of money into the club but we discovered later he was just running up a tab on our overdraft. When we stopped winning and the pressure was on he just disappeared and all our best players were sold off. He then 'sold' the club to us with debts of £7 million. We were lucky in having Mathew Benham our millionaire gambler pop out of the woodwork and give us a 5 year interest free loan along with Greg Dyke taking over chairmanship. Also we still own the ground.

Your gonna have to hope somewhere in your crowd there is a businessman or consortium with enough love for the club to lend a hand. I always feel upset when I hear of small clubs struggling in this way. In fact we are all struggling and why becuase of the Premier league (henceforth I shall refer to it as the Greedy Bastards league). Before they decided to keep all the money in their grubby little mits and turn the beautiful game into corporate entertaiment, money would trickle down. It was hard but livable in the lower leagues. The greedy bastard league also pumped up wages so artificially high that it has trickled down having an impact on lower league wages. The telly is no longer intewrested in lower leagues, most young kids only consider supporting top teams and just to show how much they care about football the league start imposing killer rules like the small transfer windows and the 6 players on the bench rule. Meaning it's hard to sell when you need to and you have to pay hotel fees etc for 6 subs.

Damn, I feel so annoyed when I think what's been done and before anyone says it's the real world it's the market. Football was always a community driven sport - it's only since the advent of the Greedy bastard league it has become a purely financial commodity. I hope eventually people realise they are being done over and there is some kind of backlash like the Rage against the machine Xmas movement. People go see real football where you get to know the players, where you have an influence on your club where you feel a part of your club your community before it's too late!

ahhhhh that's it rant over :cry:

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PostPosted: Tue Dec 22, 2009 9:13 pm 
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THE BEAUTIFUL GAME caught a nasty virus the day SKY TV :twisted: took over......and will never recover...

THE WAYNE NEWTON FAN CLUB....

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PostPosted: Wed Dec 30, 2009 10:23 pm 
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Hawley Groupie

Joined: Wed Jul 18, 2007 10:43 pm
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Location: Stockport
Sorry to bring this up again but great article about County's plight in today's Mirror. Last week County supporters marched 14 miles from Edgeley Park to the administrators and back in protest. People are waking up and we had good support from other lower league clubs (apart from Man City who by and large are happy about our demise but that's another story)

The facts are, you can only take the piss so long before people start taking direct action and it's great to see a revered sports columnist telling it like it is.



http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/opinion ... 70857.html


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PostPosted: Wed Dec 30, 2009 10:57 pm 
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Good luck to you - I've enjoyed some memorable times supporting Port Vale at Edgeley Park and we've shared some real characters on the pitch - Osher Williams is one who springs to mind. It would be awful if you went out of business - my club went into admin a couple of years ago and we're running on peanuts at the moment, but at least we're in safe (supporters') hands.

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PostPosted: Thu Dec 31, 2009 1:06 am 
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Hawley Groupie

Joined: Wed Jul 18, 2007 10:43 pm
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Location: Stockport
Ahhh, Osher Williams. He lived near me and in the 80s I went to his house on Argyll Rd in Cheadle with a tape of my band. He was a lovely bloke and a great player.

We've had some great games with Vale, remember the autoglass final?.


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PostPosted: Thu Dec 31, 2009 1:20 am 
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i am saddened by this,i worry that it won't be long before Wednesday follow this sad path............when will they learn you can't eat money?

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PostPosted: Thu Dec 31, 2009 9:49 am 
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Hawleytastic!
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Ricky wrote:
Ahhh, Osher Williams. He lived near me and in the 80s I went to his house on Argyll Rd in Cheadle with a tape of my band. He was a lovely bloke and a great player.

We've had some great games with Vale, remember the autoglass final?.


I was trying to not mention that to spare your feelings - but it was a great day out! I remember being scared of the 16 foot 8 Kevin Francis.....

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PostPosted: Mon Jan 04, 2010 12:17 am 
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I met Osher Williams a couple of years ago, he is doing a lot to help young footballers continue studying. He is a Union Learning Rep. with the PFA.

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