With County facing Everton once again in this season’s Vertu Trophy, here’s a flashback to the last time the Toffee Tots visited SK3
Monday 29 June 2026
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Dear County fans, Stopfordians, Everton supporters, and anyone else fromThe Football Family* joining us today, a very warm welcome to your Monday edition of The Scarf My Father Wore.*
County have been drawn against Everton’s kids in the Vertu Trophy group stage once again this season, after beating them 4-1 at Edgeley Park back in September 2024. I covered that game for my debut book ‘Back Where We Belong’. Here’s an extract. (And yes, we have reached that stage of the summer where I’m running out of things to write about!)
Today’s edition is sponsored byB.J. McKenna & Co Solicitors. A big thank you toAdam*.*
Have a lovely start to your week, wherever you are in the world!
Des Junior
Photo credit: Mike Petch
It’s six years since that “Swerving the Checkatrade” song but fans are continuing to boycott the Bristol Street Motors Trophy, as it’s currently known. The competition’s been sponsored by everything from vans and windscreens to paint and pizza over the years, with the prize money now coming from a load of second-hand Vauxhall Corsas. Nobody’s remotely arsed about the group stage. Only 1,299 will be at Edgeley Park this evening.
At least there’s the very strong possibility of a home win, and hopefully a few goals to boot. Everton’s first team are at home to Southampton in the third round of the League Cup tonight. With an injury crisis at Goodison Park, a couple of Everton’s kids will be in their starting-line up with loads more on the bench. The knock-on effect from that means Everton’s youngsters will have an even more youthful and inexperienced side travelling to SK3. As the visitors’ team is announced over the tannoy it sounds more like a game of bingo than a game of football. “Number 63… number 54… number 77… number 90.”
“House!” shouts Simon, one of the Stockport Sippers. He’s a window cleaner by day, Liam Gallagher tribute act by night (well… at least on a Saturday evening when he sticks his sunglasses on and throws a few shapes in the pub).
Edgeley Park is eerily quiet tonight. The Railway End’s closed. So too the upper tier of the Cheadle End, with red and white tape preventing fans from climbing the steps. There’s 102 Everton fans at one end of the Pop Side, presumably friends and family in town to support their teenage Toffees.
Dave Challinor’s made nine changes from the draw at Crawley, but it’s a strong line-up. All five of County’s second-half substitutes from the game in West Sussex – Jayden Fevrier, Tanto Olaofe, Jack Diamond, Callum Connolly and Odin Bailey – come into the side, along with unused subs Ben Hinchliffe and Nick Powell. Lewis Bate returns from injury, as does Lewis Fiorini, making his County debut after signing from Manchester City in the summer.
It’s men against boys, literally, and County waste no time in putting pressure on their opponents from the other end of the River Mersey. Fraser Horsfall hits the crossbar with a header from a Bate corner. Moments later, Fiorini also hits the bar before Powell puts the rebound over. Starting with their goalkeeper, Everton fashion a decent opportunity from one end of the pitch to the other. Isaac Heath makes a surging run through the midfield, slipping the ball through to Charlie Whitaker but his effort is stopped by Hinchliffe.
The breakthrough comes after half an hour. Fevrier turns beautifully inside his own half, skipping away from his marker before playing in Diamond down the right. His cross finds Tanto, who controls the ball with his right foot before finishing with his left. In a game like this, when the men score the boys usually crumble. It’s 2-0 within three minutes. Everton’s defence seems completely oblivious to a long ball from Hinchliffe. The only one anywhere near the ball is Jack Tierney but his backpass is short. Fevrier gets the better of goalkeeper Zan-Luk Leban to the right of the goal and finishes neatly from a tight angle. Tanto and Diamond both have efforts saved before the half-time whistle.
Everton’s kids must have been tucking into a load of Jelly Babies in the visitors’ dressing room at the break because they set about the second half full of vigour. Hinchliffe has to make two early saves to deny Jacob Beaumont-Clark. Just six minutes after the restart, however, the Toffee tots are put to bed. Tierney once again fails to deal with a long ball, this time from Connolly, and Tanto takes full advantage by nodding the ball away from the defender and coolly side-footing it past the keeper. Just past the hour mark, the kids of Everton are starting to have nightmares. Powell heads home County’s fourth from a Bate free-kick.
The night’s only blip comes seven minutes before the end. Not for the first time this season, County are arsing about trying to play the ball out from the back. Hinchliffe plays it straight to Omari Benjamin, who whacks the ball into the net. It’s an almighty fuck-up, don’t get me wrong, but of the thousands of goals I’ve seen County concede over the years, I could make a case for this being the one I’m least arsed about. You can’t begrudge Everton’s kids nicking a goal on the night, and with two wins and eight goals we’re practically through to the knockout rounds already.
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Photo(s) of the day
Edgeley Park, Stockport
A few photos from the match you’ve just read about.
Today in SK
🍹Food and drink
2 cocktails for £15 atFlute & Firkin (SK12).
⚽️World Cup 2026
Two more Round of 32 fixtures in the World Cup tonight. Brazil 🇧🇷 v Japan 🇯🇵 at 6pm followed by Germany 🇩🇪 v Paraguay 🇵🇾 at 9.30pm. Get yourself down toThe Cross Keys(SK8) where bitter is just £2.55 a pint all day and night. Elsewhere, there’s plenty of tellies and loads of special offers atThread (SK1),The Crown(SK2),The Nursery Inn (SK4),The Crown Inn(SK6),The Royal Oak (SK6),The Three Tunnes(SK7),The Kenilworth (SK8),The Cheshire Cheese(SK14) andThe Albion (SK16). Go and support them this month!
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