On a grey overcast afternoon, the lucky ones with tickets, made their way to Edgeley Park, to watch the Wanderers take on the Hatters from Stockport County. Memories of our FA Cup replay defeat in 2022, were fresh in our minds, along with the titanic battles we had with Stockport in the 1990s, as both clubs fought for promotion to the Premier League.

Sadly, they hit a decline in the 2000s, going out of the Football League, over a miserly debt of £250,000. Now, it is good to see one of our local rivals back in the League and we faced an eagerly anticipated derby match, as we looked to extend our recent good run and establish ourselves as genuine contenders.

We were welcomed in the Nelson Tavern, where we sank a couple of Timothy Taylor’s Landlord. Our efforts to obtain a team sheet were thwarted as they had been recalled, over an unfortunate spelling mistake in the colour of Bolton’s socks.

Ian Evatt went with an attacking line up and we were able to welcome back Gethin Jones and Jordi Osei-Tutu on the bench. Again Stockport County couldn’t spell the latter’s name correctly in the programme.

The day went rapidly downhill from when the referee blew his whistle, after the respectfully observed Remembrance commemorations. We simply did not turn up. Our defence was poor, our midfield overwhelmed and our forwards could not get in the game. Stockport cashed in on our repeated mistakes.

We got stuffed 5-0 and when you consider that Nathan Baxter was our man of the match, I think that says it all about our non-performance. It was awful. It was embarrassing. It was humiliating. The players got an angry response from the fans, who stayed until the end. The best chant of the afternoon was ‘ We should have gone Christmas shopping’!

This was a bad defeat and it will have damaged the confidence of the fans and the players alike. Where teams let us play, we don’t seem to have a problem.

Where teams battle against us, like in derby matches and against the top six teams, we struggle. We are at our best when the whole team is pressing and we are defending in their half.

We need to get some fight back in the team, because most teams will not let us play. We need to fight for every point this season.