From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Sep 2026
Harley Windsor damages knee ligaments — 20 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 20 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Robert James could not have asked for more on his first appearance — 7.82
Debuts are survived rather than enjoyed. This one was enjoyed: 7.82, 1 goals, and a manager already being asked whether he starts again next week.
Match16 Sep 2026
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 87th, and Gillingham spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Benoný Breki Andrésson, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.77
A mark of 7.77 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Oliver Norwood was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The terraces21 Sep 2026
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Corey Addai gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Sep 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Harley Windsor
28 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Stockport County lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Oliver Whatmuff is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Lewis Bate falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
A performance of 8.26 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
A performance of 8.03 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad14 Sep 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
The terraces14 Sep 2026
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Sep 2026
Harley Windsor damages knee ligaments — 36 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 36 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Match5 Sep 2026
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Stockport County are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Stockport County training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lewis Bate is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Market7 Sep 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Corey Addai dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Lewis Bate in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Stockport County this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Arttu Hoskonen falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad31 Aug 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Match29 Aug 2026
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Kyle Wootton finally opens his account
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Stockport County have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.40 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Kyle Wootton in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Stockport County this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match22 Aug 2026
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Stockport County and Bolton Wanderers in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Match22 Aug 2026
2‑4 to Bolton Wanderers, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Stockport County training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lewis Bate is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Malik Mothersille has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match15 Aug 2026
0‑3 against Cardiff City, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 6 of the 29 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Kyle Wootton was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
4 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Squad17 Aug 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Market17 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Robert Hall has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market17 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Robert James has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market17 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Richard Smith has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Aug 2026
The offer from Coventry City for Kyle Wootton was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Malik Mothersille and Stockport County agree another 4 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Kyle Wootton was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Lewis Bate falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Market10 Aug 2026
Che Gardner has left for Bromley in a $110.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Kyle Wootton gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
584 appearances across 9 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Oliver Norwood and Stockport County agree another 2 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Oliver Norwood was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Stockport County training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lewis Bate is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Market3 Aug 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Market3 Aug 2026
49 months and counting on Jack Diamond
Still no offer on the table, and Jack Diamond’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.