No word from David Moyes, who to be fair looked desperate for a hot shower before heading back down south. No matter, though, because Jamie Jackson was at Edgeley Park tonight, and his verdict on the last third-round tie of the weekend has landed! You know what to do: clickity click! Thanks for reading this MBM. Stay safe, dry and warm. Nighty night!
A drenched but philosophical Jim Gannon talks to BT Sport. “They are disappointed in there. But isn’t it a testimony of how they played to come off disappointed to lose the game? We had to hold them out, but did really well, and gave ourselves a chance of getting a goal to win the game, but it was always a stretch for us. The performance showed they’re a cut above this level, and hopefully will show that for the rest of the league season. We were disappointed with our set plays, because they were going to be our opportunities to score, but we tried to play the right game and I think we showed what we are all about. We’re still growing together. We’ve had a really good cup run, so the club is on the right way. It’s a tough year for everyone, but we want to go one better than last season and go for promotion. If they play like they did tonight they’ll have a good chance.”
A grim-faced David Moyes gives Jim Gannon a respectful nod. He knows his team were forced to dig deep for that narrow victory. Stockport look extremely disappointed, understandably so given their efforts, and how close they came to taking West Ham to extra time. West Ham’s goalscoring hero Craig Dawson tells BT Sport it was a “tough game ... the pitch was difficult for both sides, but we stuck to our task ... it’s been a while since I played on a pitch like that, but we moved the ball well and it was nice to get a goal at the end ... it was a great clean sheet.”
FULL TIME: Stockport County 0-1 West Ham United
Randolph claims a Hail Mary, and the final whistle goes. Craig Dawson’s late header sends the Hammers into the fourth round, where they’ll host Doncaster Rovers. Stockport have to make do with the knowledge that they pushed a Premier League side all the way. Superb at the back, they were undone by one lapse in concentration.
90 min +3: Palmer nearly loops a monster backpass over Hinchliffe’s head. The keeper does extremely well to bring the ball down from the sky and skelp clear.
90 min +2: Whatever happens, this has been an heroic effort by fifth-tier Stockport County. And it was probably time for some West Ham success in the head-to-head. They haven’t beaten County since 1958!
90 min +1: The first of four extra minutes sees Rice step across Bennett to claim possession on the corner of the West Ham box. Bennett claims hopefully, desperately, for a penalty, but he’s never getting one.
90 min: Benrahma won’t be getting that first West Ham goal tonight. He’s substituted, along with Antonio, Fornals and Odubeko taking their places.
89 min: West Ham deal with it easily enough. “What a relief,” sighs Nick Boonstra. “Funny, though – first thought is the elation of scoring; second thought is reflection upon the fact that Craig Dawson got his first Hammers goal before Said Benrahma. Such is life in claret and blue.”
88 min: Kitching works his way down the left and wins a corner. Stockport send everyone bar the keeper into the box.
86 min: One corner leads to another. Before the second can be taken, Stockport swap Rooney, Williams and Minihan for Hinchy, Thomas and Palmer. The second corner is a non-event.
85 min: Soucek has made a big difference since coming on. He barges his way into the box down the right. Keane hangs out a leg. Soucek goes over. There’s contact. It should be a penalty, but the referee is lenient. Just a corner.
GOAL! Stockport County 0-1 West Ham United (Dawson 83)
A long ball down the right for Soucek, who wins a corner. The set piece is taken short by Rice, with Stockport snoozing a bit. Bowen curls a delicious inswinger towards the far post. Dawson breaks from deep and heads downwards, into the bottom left. A fine goal, and some very quick thinking, but the hosts will be kicking themselves for going to sleep.
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82 min: Coufal curls in from the right. Soucek fires a header wide from six yards. Frustration written all over West Ham faces. Stockport replace Jennings with Southam-Hales.
81 min: Cresswell wriggles into the Stockport box from the left but his low cross evades everybody. Nothing’s clicking for the Hammers up front, though they’ve at least upped the pace at long last.
79 min: Hogan slices backwards, high into the sky. Hinchliffe hares out to catch, and misses the ball altogether. Bowen can’t reach the loose ball, though, and Keane clears. A couple of signs that Stockport are beginning to feel the heat, worried of undoing all of their evening’s good work.
77 min: Benrahma, to the right of the D, crosses to absolutely nobody. The ball bounces sadly out for a goal kick. Extra time becomes more and more a realistic prospect. This is a fine effort by County.
75 min: Stockport have looked nerveless all evening, but here’s the first sign of a wee jangle, as Hinchliffe shanks a clearance straight to Benrahma, who attempts to return into an unguarded net. His effort sails wide right, a harmless miss, though even had it been on target, Hogan was running back to cover and would have had more than half a chance of blocking on the line.
74 min: Dawson is winning a foot race with Bennett down the Stockport left ... then loses all rhythm, allowing Bennett to whip the ball off his toe. He looks for Rooney in the middle. Ogbonna, taking no chances, comes across to blooter out for a throw. From that throw, Rooney tries to fox Randolph at his near post, but the keeper’s not to be beaten.
73 min: Cresswell comes on for Johnson.
72 min: After a very impressive first 15 minutes, West Ham have achieved the square root of naff all in attack. Stockport have been extremely impressive.
70 min: A reminder that this goes to extra time if there’s no winner during the 90 minutes. “I’m actually getting more of a Sunday League vibe here,” writes Daniel Barnett. “Looking forward to seeing Lanzini sat on Rice’s shoulders to take the nets down at the end.”
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68 min: Stockport waste yet another set piece. They load the box for a free kick on the right, a futile gesture given the delivery that follows. On the touchline, Jim Gannon melts down yet again. All that training-ground planning, and for this?
67 min: David Moyes has seen enough. He replaces Lanzini and the ineffectual Yarmolenko with Bowen and Soucek.
66 min: Williams loops long from the left. Randolph does well to claim. He launches long. Stockport come again! Kitching breezes down the left and crosses low. Rooney tees up Williams with a cute backheel. Williams takes a snapshot. Ogbonna blocks and clears. Stockport are beginning to carry a proper threat. This could be on, you know.
64 min: The rain continues to bucket down. The pitch becomes heavier and heavier. All the conditions for a shock, right here. And hold on, what’s this? Jennings and Minihan combining crisply down the right, the former having a shot from a tight angle that’s blocked by Dawson. A big warning to West Ham, right there.
63 min: Rice curls a dangerous ball in from the right. Nobody in West Ham black has gambled on a run. Hinchliffe has had precious little to do this evening.
62 min: Stockport make their first change, replacing Reid up front with Bennett.
60 min: Something of a lull. Stockport will be delighted with the way this is panning out. West Ham will begin to feel the nerves jangling soon. “We need three replays really to complete the 70s aesthetic.” Richard Hirst making a fair point there.
58 min: A sensational driving run by Rice, who picks the ball up in his own half and surges down the right, powering into the box and only being stopped from shooting at the very last minute by a Hogan-Keane pincer movement. Fine defending, but what a goal that could have been!
57 min: The pitch is slowly turning into a peaty quagmire, giving this third-round match a distinctly Seventies feel. We just need a few kids in parkas up a nearby tree to complete the aesthetic.
55 min: Yarmolenko’s clever reverse pass down the right is completely misread by Coufal. The wing-back’s hesitation gifts Kitching the opportunity to clear.
53 min: In the dugout, Stockport boss Jim Gannon throws an emotional fit, clearly unimpressed by his team’s set-piece delivery. By all accounts they’ve been working hard on their set pieces all week, so you can perhaps understand his take on the results so far.
52 min: The hosts are looking lively. Jennings swaggers down the middle and slips a pass down the left for Williams. The ball screeches to a halt in a puddle, allowing Williams to win a corner that’s subsequently wasted.
51 min: It wasn’t worth waiting for. Rooney curls it harmlessly into the arms of Randolph. The rain continues to lash down.
50 min: A free kick for Stockport out on the right. They take their sweet time about it.
48 min: The corner is a waste of everyone’s time. Here’s Rick Parfett: “Maybe not a feast of football for the neutral, but happy with that first half from a Stockport perspective; dogged and disciplined. The wonderful thing is that this match is a bonus. After years of falling down the leagues, to the point where we were playing part-time football, County legend Jim Gannon and a brilliant group of players led us back to the National League. Now, with an ambitious and sensible new owner, some shrewd additions and Gannon still in charge, the future looks bright. So proud of the boys tonight and every week.”
47 min: A slow start to the second half. Then suddenly Coufal skitters down the right and earns the first corner of the second half.
West Ham get the second half underway. No changes. Meanwhile, regarding those first-half fireworks: they were launched in support of Khia Whirehead, a 15-year-old from Stockport currently in intensive care after being knocked down by a car. Here’s to the young man getting better very soon.
Really nice to see the whole Stockport community pulling together to support Khia! We are all still sending our thoughts and prayers across to him and his family. Keep fighting Khia! 💚💚💚 pic.twitter.com/ulcXhV7reC
— Stockport SFA (@StockportSFA) January 11, 2021
Half-time entertainment. A reminder of tonight’s draw for the fourth and fifth rounds.
HALF TIME: Stockport County 0-0 West Ham United
Two minutes of spectacular fireworks; the rest has been a damp squib. Like Stockport will care: they’ve kept West Ham at arm’s length easily enough. A reminder that this will go to extra time and penalties if nobody can find a winner.
45 min +1: A rare Stockport attack sees Minihan force a corner down the right. Reid’s delivery is no good whatsoever and harmlessly files straight out of play, fluttering the side netting.
45 min: There will be two extra minutes of this first half.
43 min: Rice drifts in from the left and looks for the top right. Nope.
42 min: There’s very little urgency in West Ham’s play at the moment. Stockport are quite happy to let them have it, 30 yards out. There’s no way through.
40 min: Antonio drives across the face of the Stockport box, left to right, and tries a curler towards the bottom right. A deflection takes the ball off target and out for a corner. Ogbonna meets the set piece with a weak header that dribbles apologetically pas the left-hand post.
38 min: Some good end-to-end fun as Antonio nearly scoots clear through the middle, only to miscontrol, allowing Kitching to take the ball off his toe. Reid goes up the other end and wins a corner off Dawson. Nothing comes of the set piece.
37 min: Hogan tries to play out from the back, and is closed down by Noble. The Stockport centre-back is extremely pleased to see the ball deflected across the face of goal and out of reach of the nearby Antonio.
36 min: Benrahma tries to release Yarmolenko down the inside right. There’s a little too much pace on the pass; there’s a little hesitation by Yarmolenko too. The net result is a goal kick.
35 min: Reid launches a solo sortie down the right. West Ham are light at the back, but Reid has neither the speed nor savvy to jink his way past Ogbonna, who holds his line and eventually takes the ball off his opponent.
34 min: West Ham continue to dominate possession; Stockport continue to hold their shape.
33 min: Lanzini sends a dipper towards the bottom right from distance, but it’s an easy gather for Hinchliffe.
32 min: Yarmolenko slips a ball down the middle hoping to release Antonio, who nearly spins Keane, only to stumble, allowing Hinchliffe to gather under no pressure.
30 min: Some head tennis on the edge of the West Ham box. The ball breaks to Williams, who tries his luck from the left-hand edge of the D. It whistles wide left and batters loudly into the advertising hoardings. That was hit with some venom.
28 min: Noble rolls a ball down the inside-right channel for Benrahma. It’s sitting up, begging to be hit. Benrahma obliges, but his effort sails well wide of the left-hand post. A first goal for his new club remains elusive.
26 min: West Ham’s early attacking threat has been subdued. Now it’s Stockport’s turn to look fairly comfortable with the way this is going.
24 min: Johnson tries to squirm his way through a small gap down the left, and nearly makes it to a clearing, but Stockport close the door just in time.
22 min: That was a half-chance for Stockport, but there were no blue shirts where Randolph’s weak punch fell. A lucky break for West Ham.
20 min: The pyrotechnics have put a stop to West Ham’s gallop, and Stockport win their first corner of the game. It’s swung into the mixer, and Randolph takes a closing-time swing at clearing it. His punch is hopeless, pinging off the side of his fist, and the situation requires the intervention of the nearby Ogbonna, who hoofs clear.
19 min: Ah no, that’s the end of it. The match resumes.
18 min: It’s loud enough for Mike Dean to stop play until it’s finished.
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17 min: A dog-bothering firework display is set off outside Edgeley Park. It’s properly spectacular, November 5 and New Year’s Eve rolled into one, and has already lasted a couple of minutes.
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15 min: West Ham have enjoyed 68 percent of the possession so far. They’ve looked very comfortable. Stockport haven’t done a thing in attack yet, though with the score goalless, they’ll be happy enough too, in their own way.
14 min: Dawson is good to continue.
13 min: Dawson is down having taken a whack on the noggin. The physio comes on and runs through his checks.
12 min: Yarmolenko finds a bit of time and space out on the right. He nudges the ball infield before rasping a low diagonal drive wide of the left-hand post. Not too far away, though Hinchliffe almost certainly had it covered.
11 min: West Ham win the first corner of the game, out on the right. Noble’s delivery fails to beat the first man.
10 min: West Ham continue to push Stockport back. Rice thinks about a shot before shuttling the ball towards Noble, who tries to burst into the box down the inside-left channel. He runs the ball out for a goal kick, but only just. That gambit nearly paid off.
8 min: West Ham are stroking it around confidently now. Rice, Lanzini and Antonio take turns to probe this way and that. David Moyes will be happy with the start his strong selection has made.
6 min: Rice hugs the right touchline and does extremely well to dig out a deep cross. He finds Benrahma, who drops a shoulder to shift the ball inside and curls one towards the bottom right. It’s just wide - in fact it brushes the outside of the post. A clever effort, and so close to the opening goal. Hinchliffe was beaten all ends up.
5 min: Noble executes a garden-variety tackle in midfield and aquaplanes off the pitch. Suffice to say this surface is pretty slippery, and players will do well to time every tackle. A fair chance we’ll see a couple of slapstick clatters this evening. Let’s hope Mike Dean is in a forgiving mood.
4 min: There are 86 places between these two teams in the pyramid. No great on-pitch evidence of that chasm yet, but fair’s fair, look at the timestamp.
2 min: A very scrappy first couple of minutes that could best be described as agricultural. The third round of the cup: we wouldn’t have it any other way.
Referee Mike Dean - who took charge of the 2008 final between Portsmouth and Cardiff City - blows his whistle, and we’re off! Stockport get the ball rolling.
The teams are out! Stockport are in their first-choice blue, forcing West Ham into third-choice black. The rain is belting down - it is January in Manchester after all - and so conditions are heavy. Somebody’s FA Cup hopes will go slip sliding away tonight, one way or the other. But whose? We’ll found out soon enough. We’ll be off in a minute!
Jim Gannon of Stockport has been on tenterhooks ... “As soon as the draw was made, the anticipation started building. I had to keep reminding everyone we had nine league games before it came around!”
... as has his counterpart at West Ham, David Moyes: “It’s been a long wait until Monday night but we’re looking forward to playing.”
Right, that’s the cup draw sorted. We now know that the winners of this match will host Doncaster Rovers in the fourth round ... and if they make it past Donny, they’ll be travelling to either Old Trafford or Anfield in round five! Some carrot dangled, right there.
David Moyes naming a strong West Ham side, there. More about tonight’s tie coming up very soon ... but they’ll be pulling the balls out of the hat for the fourth and fifth round draws in a minute, so like some 1970s prog rocker, I’m switching keyboards ahead of a 20-minute-long riff. Back soon!
The teams
Stockport County: Hinchliffe, Minihan, Hogan, Keane, Kitching, Croasdale, Maynard, Rooney, Williams, Reid, Connor Jennings.
Subs: Gilmour, Southam-Hales, James Jennings, Stott, Bennett, Barnes, Palmer, Thomas, Hinchy.
West Ham United: Randolph, Coufal, Dawson, Ogbonna, Johnson, Noble, Rice, Yarmolenko, Lanzini, Benrahma, Antonio.
Subs: Cresswell, Fornals, Bowen, Soucek, Trott, Alves, Baptiste, Holland, Odubeko.
Referee: Mike Dean (Wirral).
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Preamble
Stockport County and West Ham United. Fourth in the fifth-tier National League, 14 points off the lead, versus a team seven points off the top of the Premier League. A club that has never got past the fifth round of the FA Cup against three-time winners. This should be a shoo-in for the Hammers, right?
Well, it probably should be, yes; if County win tonight, it’ll be one heck of a shock. But the thing is, despite the huge gulf between the two clubs, Stockport have the upper hand historically. The clubs have met on 14 occasions; County have won precisely half of them, with the Hammers only winning four times. The last time they met, in December 1996, third-tier Stockport put West Ham out of the League Cup, a shock principally remembered for Iain Dowie’s spectacular own goal.
Stockport also put West Ham out of the League Cup in 1973, and the FA Cup in 1935. West Ham’s sole victory over County in knockout competition came in the FA Cup in 1958, but even then, if the contemporary report in this paper is anything to go by, County played the more stylish football, beaten by the odd goal in five by a stronger, faster team from a higher division.
Having said all that, West Ham have faced non-league opposition on six previous occasions ... and they’ve won them all. Will they add Stockport County to a list that comprises Corinthians (1929 and 1933), Hereford (1972), Farnborough Town (1992), Kidderminster Harriers (1994) and Emley (1998)? Or will County manager Jim Gannon - who was in the side that beat the Hammers back in ‘96 - mastermind one of the biggest shocks in recent FA Cup history? It’ll be fun finding out. It’s on!
Kick off: 8pm GMT.
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