Inside a revitalised Stockport County as club aim to write new chapter in storied history

The times are changing at Stockport County.

The Hatters reclaimed their Football League status last summer after a turbulent tumble down the divisions amid a myriad of financial concerns. The nadir came in 2013 with relegation to the National League North.

The club's Latin motto is Animo Et Fide, loosely translated as With Courage and Faith. That's been needed in spades. The Manchester Evening News goes behind the scenes at a revitalised County.

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There's an oft-cited fixture from County's history, a 3-1 win over neighbours Manchester City in the second tier in 1997. Stockport were three up inside half-an-hour and finished that season in eighth, having been in the mix for the play-offs and a shot at the Premier League for large parts. City were relegated to the third tier.

They were heady days but troubled times were ahead. The turn of the century yielded a change in fortunes and County dropped four divisions in a decade. Suddenly, their derby was Stalybridge Celtic not City.

A first sixth-tier campaign ended sandwiched between Leamington and Worcester in mid-table. The fourth tier looked a long way off, let alone duking it out towards the top of the Championship. Now the feeling is different.

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"We will be back there," says bullish club president Steve Bellis, a bubbly and likeable character whose involvement at the club stretches 40-odd years over two spells. "In the National League North we were on a downward spiral, we were a tanker trying to turn round. When I came back in 2014 it was like the soul had been ripped out. We had lost the connection a little bit but we knew it wouldn't take much to get it back."

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