Stars on Stripes

Stockport County 1-3 Norwich City

You know how airlines sometimes overbook flights? Well it turns out hotels do it too. A 9.30pm arrival on a Friday night in Stockport is just as glamorous as it sounds, especially when you are turned away from your reserved bed for the night because of a mistake on the hotel's part. They grudgingly helped us find another one in the end.

While we were demanding to see the duty manager in a hotel reception, the combined weight of the Sale Sharks and Gloucester rugby teams were slugging out a Guiness Premiership rugby game at Edgeley Park. No surprise then that the poor old pitch hadn't quite recovered from the ordeal the next day.

A stripe of dead grass ran the length of the pitch at the ground a couple of yards in from one touchline. It almost looked as if the ground was being prepared for next cricket season.

As well as the poor pitch, the Stockport press box provided its own challenge. The fact that each of the desks had a slight overhang at the back meant that every time you left your seat you ran a serious risk of cracking your head on the table of the journalist behind. There would be no jumping out of your seat here, unless one fancied a stylish Terry Butcher head-bandage.

It wasn't the best of games, but two for Grant Holt and a Wes Hoolahan penalty saw Norwich through, the quality of the match best summed up by the fact that Stockport's goal came off the backside of striker Peter Thompson.