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?
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