Stockport County - Hattering Heights

Slater: "We must build on this good start."

Stockport County manager Josh Slater has said that his team must build on their good start back in the Skrill Premier in order to survive in the division.

Stockport have started very good in the early months of the Skrill Premier, being in 6th place in the league, they are already pushing for a play-off place which would be a huge over-achievement as they have just been promoted to the Skrill Premier after a great season with Alan Lord in the Skrill North.

"It's been a great start from the lads I must say, being in 6th place within the first two months is something to be proud of. We must build on this good start as it's the only way to possibly push up the league, we cannot lose our concentration as every game means something for us, and if the lads show their commitment throughout the rest of the season, who knows where we will finish."

"Every player has contributed in some way so far this season and they are improving as footballers everyday. They should be extremely happy with their performances but they need to make sure they are consistent as that shows the good players from the very good players, and if each one gives it their all they can become even better players."

Consistency is key, especially in the LLM! Even said it in a previous update, if I recall.

October Report - Early Exit

My third month in-charge and I'm living the dream, who would have thought I'd be in 6th place come October? The fans are impressed which is the important thing, as I need their support to continue our good run of form this season, anyway let's see how we got on in this short month!

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Let's start with our first game shall we? What a win it was. Bristol Rovers, who have League 2 quality players were going to be a tough team to dispatch, but the boys were emphatic and thoroughly deserved the victory. We went a goal behind within the first ten minutes after some bad marking from a corner but we soon picked up the pace and Danny Pilkington found the net with a bullet header just before half-time. Then yet again Nat Jarvis popped up in the most convenient of spaces to calmly tuck the ball into the bottom corner and ultimately win the game.

If anything, that victory should have given us belief, however the next game against Stalybridge completely proved that idea wrong as we just didn't turn up at all. We played some sloppy passes from the back and gave the ball away, which lead to them scoring an early goal and they parked the bus for the rest of the game which won them the game, disappointing performance to say the least.

This shows how in-consistent we are, we beat a really good team 2-1, lose to a team who are battling relegation and then we thrash another team in the promotion mix at their ground, we need to sort this form out ahaha. Nat Jarvis once again scored the first goal for us 3 minutes in to put Gateshead on the back foot. Then ex-player James Marwood scored against his former club with a 20 yard pearler which nestled into the top left hand corner of the net to make it 2-0 within 10 minutes. Nat Jarvis then scored a brace in the 83rd minute to give us a very good 3-0 victory, amazing performance!

Now onto our first FA Cup game, we were playing the league leaders Grimsby in the fourth round of the FA Cup qualifying stage, which I don't really care about but it'd nice to progress in the FA Cup to garner more income, anyway to the game, which was rather boring in all but I guess a 0-0 draw away at Grimsby isn't too bad.

Now onto the replay of that tie against Grimsby which was held at Edgeley Park. We took the lead through Piero Mingoia, who has been an inspired signing since he joined from Accrington. However they pushed men forward and got an equaliser just before half-time and ultimately got the winner, ah well, there is always next year...

And finally our last game was against Halifax which was relatively boring. James Marwood got us the lead after a very cool finish through the goalkeepers leg to make it 1-0 however we couldn't hold on as thy sneaked in a 80th minute goal from a corner to make us only take 1 point from that game to end a crazy month.

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Awards

Player of the Month

James Marwood

James has been very consistent throughout this month and deserves this award. He has given 110% in each game he has played and not only has he scored goals, but he has contributed towards a few goals this month. Hopefully he'll continue his rich vain of form for many months to come.

I've enjoyed the last few updates, keep it up

Another really nice update, and some good results!
Hopefully you can start to be more consistent soon though.

@Pauker: Yep you mentioned it before but you speak the truth! I hope we hit a good patch of form at some point in the season.

@Justice: Glad you've enjoyed them! I hope you'll enjoy the rest of my updates that I've got planned!

@Pompey: Thanks a lot Pompey I really hope we can become more consistent!

Great start mate, good luck with your future endeavours!

Not a bad start to the season at all, considering that you're newly promoted you're doing very well Josh, keep up the good work all it takes is a string of results in that league and you're right in the reckoning

November Report - Consistency is key

We need to be more consistent this month, after evaluating last month I saw that we struggled to defend after scoring, so we need to sort that out. However we had some impressive results against what I'd call the 'big teams' and hopefully we can improve! Anyway, lets see how we got on this month!

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Our first game was against Lincoln and we played some decent football at Edgeley Park but we just couldn't get that winning goal. We took the lead through a sharp and precise strike from Danny Pilkington to go in to the second half 1-0 up. Lincoln really started to take the game to us and got the equaliser with 20 minutes to go. We pushed and pushed but we couldn't get the winning goal and had to settle for a draw.

Next was Dartford which was our final home game this month and we really showed the fans just how good we can be. Danny Pilkington once more got the first goal to make it 1-0 after he tapped the ball into the bottom corner from a cut-back. Danny Pilkington then got his second of the game with a sublime header into the roof of the net. Piero Mingoia then got the third and final goal as he smashed the ball in via the near post to round off a perfect performance.

Onto our first away game now against Boreham Wood. One of our new signings this season who used to play for us, Sean Newton, got the first goal in the second half as he ran into the box and tucked the ball away into the centre of the net. Nat Jarvis got the second a few minutes after as he broke the offside trap and rounded the goalkeeper before finishing the ball into the right corner. They got a late goal from a free-kick but we held on and won! Great performance!

Then it was time to play our first game this season in the FA Trophy 1st Round against low league Cammell Laird. We took the lead through Danny Pilkington again, he's on fire this month! Danny Pilkington then got the second of the game as he scored a magnificent volley from a worked corner routine to make it 2-0! And guess who got the third? That's right, Danny Pilkington. He got his hat-trick after he eased past his man and fired the ball past the goalkeeper! What a great performance by the winger!

Then we faced Grimsby for the third time in two months and we wanted to get revenge but unfortunately, it was the most boring game of the whole season! Nothing much happened except a few half chances which completely bored both sets of fans. Let's move on shall we?

And now our final game! We bounced back from a boring draw against Grimsby with an emphatic win. They took the lead after some shoddy defending which allowed their forward go through on goal to fire Chester into the lead. However we equalised through Piero Mingoia curling the ball into the top right hand corner to make it 1-1. Lewis Hawkins put us in the lead as he chipped the ball over the keeper to make it 1-2. Then Piero Mingoia scored his second as he was a part of a good passing move which he finished with one touch! Amazing win to round off an amazing month!

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League Table

We are doing really well after the results from this month, we've moved up to 2nd place and hopefully we can stay around here come the end of the season!

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Awards

Player of the Month

Danny Pilkington

Without a doubt Danny deserves this award! He's scored the most goals this month and has got a couple of assists! I'm glad Lord brought him back as he's really impressed me this month and I hope he continues this form for the months to come!

Really good results, keep it up.

Great results, Danny Pilkington seem to have a really good month! Love the layout for the updates ... Nice banner too

County sign Halifax player-maker

Stockport County have signed FC Halifax's star play-maker on a free transfer with his contract expiring in 2016.

The club confirmed on it's official Twitter that Gardner will join on a part-time contract until 2016, with the play-maker earning around £1,000, which makes him the highest paid player being just above the club captain, Phil Jevons, who earns £950.

Gardner joined FC Halifax in 2012 and went on to make 64 appearances, scoring 15 goals and getting 15 assists in his time at Halifax. Speaking to 'The Non-League Paper', Gardner said that the reason he joined Stockport was that he 'respected the manager Josh Slater' and 'wanted to be apart of the current re-build'.

Josh Slater: "Danny is a great player who I am very excited to be working with here at Stockport. When I saw his availability I knew I'd have to be quick to get him and I'm delighted that Danny has decided to come here."

"He's a marvellous player with a good eye for a pass and you can tell by his record at Halifax just how good he can be. I hope he settles in quickly and that he quickly gels with the other lads as he's a prime asset to us progressing in this division."

you picked up a good signing for free there and your doing well in the league, Grimsby look out of reach already though

@NVDTahir: Thanks man, appreciate the comment!

@Bantams: Thank you very much! I hope we can become consistent and have a good patch of form!

@Cfc: Thanks man!

@Nick: Yeah, Danny's been great, I wish both him and his brother (Anthony Plikington) came back to County IRL. Also I'm glad you like the layout coming from a graphics genius! And yes, lovely banner ain't it?

@Jason: Yeah I hope Gardner does good for us! Grimsby are the favourites to go up but we'll give them a fight! Remember, we've only just been promoted so it's a huge achievement to even be in the top 10! Let alone the top 2!

You've got Dan Gardner on a free, he's a class player, Chesterfield had to pay for him in real life.