Ten for County
Saturday, 24th May 2008 08:30

As the Bank Holiday Play off final approaches, we've grabbed hold of the Stockport site editor and interrogated him on all things County.

1) County were threatening top 3 late on. Were the play offs seen as being 2nd best?
For me reaching the play-offs was a necessity and anything else would have been a bonus. Although we pushed Hereford for the third and final automatic promotion spot, we never climbed into the top three so we didn’t really lose out. My thoughts in pre-season were that we had to improve on last season’s placing of 8th – we did that this season so Jim Gannon has done another good job.

2) How did you view the Play Off games with Wycombe?
Two very tight games which could have gone either way. We rode our luck in the second leg at Edgeley Park as we withstood a lot of pressure once Liam Dickinson had put us 1-0 up but in truth Wycombe didn’t really create any clear cut chances. Stephen Gleeson’s excellent late leveller at Adams Park was a massive boost to us as we always felt comfortable of completing the job at home.

3) You're not going to do a Darlington and spend the build up bemoaning your injuries are you?
We’ve actually got an almost fully fit squad to choose from so it’s not an excuse we can use. Jim Gannon spent the build up to the Wycombe game using reverse psychology but the build up to our game has been relatively quiet in comparison.

4) Which of the two teams do you think will be better equipped to face life in League One?
I actually think that the two teams are very similar so whoever goes up should do alright in League One next season. We may be slightly better equipped to adjust to life in League One as our average attendances are higher than Dale’s so Jim Gannon should have more money in the pot to strengthen the squad.

5) You've beaten us twice this season. Is it worth us turning up on Monday?
We’ve had the upper hand in League games in recent season’s (barring the plucky 7-2 defeat) so the players should fancy their chances on Monday. The only problem is play-off games tend to have no bearing on League matches so we should be equal favourites.

6) At time of writing, you've sold 10,000 tickets. Is that more or less what you expected, and how many do you reckon you will eventually sell?
With a town the size of Stockport, we should easily have sold our allocation of tickets but unfortunately we have too many Utd and City fans in the area which is a problem you no doubt encounter as well. Our average gates this season have been 5,600 so to take anything above 10,000 is a good thing. Whatever the amount of fans at Wembley at the day, we’ll no doubt make one hell of an atmosphere!

7) Wembley has proved to be an unlucky ground for County. Will that be a factor on Monday?
The four defeats at Wembley all occurred in the 90’s so I don’t think the bad omen will weigh on the minds of the players as obviously none of them were around at the time. The old stadium has been demolished and hopefully our bad luck under the twin towers was demolished at the same time. No doubt Jim Gannon and Peter Ward will use their experiences of Wembley to help prepare the players in the best possible way.

8) ok, forget all the usual pleasantries about the opposition. In a heavyweight boxer stylee, tell us why Stockport will easily beat Dale at Wembley?
We’ll easily beat Rochdale because promotion isn’t a word in your vocabulary is it? On a serious note, if we can nick an early goal then you’ll do well to get anything from the game as we are proving very hard to break down these days. The suspension of David Perkins will be a big boost to us!

9) Sum up County's season so far in eight words or less.
Disappointing start leading to a fantastic end!

10) I've got a spare Sky Plus box at my house. Do you think Gannon might be interested?
I believe he has signed up with Virgin, can I have it instead?