Steven Schumacher will hope to finally combat the curse Stockport County hold over Bolton Wanderers | OneFootball

The Hatters have been a thorn in the side of their local rivals in recent years

Stockport County and Bolton Wanderers went almost 20 years without playing each other.

From January 2002 – where Bolton brushed aside County 4-1 in an FA Cup tie – Stockport were required to wait all the way until November 2021 to exact their revenge.

And exact it they did. Over the course of the following few years, the couple of times the two sides have met have been difficult encounters for the Trotters.

Now, under new management with Steven Schumacher, Bolton fans will feel it’s time to correct the curse.

Dave Challinor’s first game for Stockport County truly kicked the saga off

There was already a flicker of tension between the two sides before the Hatters – then of the National League – rocked up at third-tier Bolton for an FA Cup tie.

The source of that tension was one Antoni Sarcevic, former Bolton captain who a few weeks prior had dropped two divisions to join Stockport, seemingly out of nowhere.

There were suspicions from Bolton fans, as there were with many County signings around that time, that he’d forced the move for money or some other disagreeable reason, but the player has since claimed on the I Had Trials Once podcast that the move was motivated from the club’s side.

Whatever the truth of the situation, he was a key topic of conversation for the first-round tie at the time, despite not being in the squad.

The Hatters pulled off a shock 2-2 draw and, with FA Cup replays still active then, booked themselves an opportunity at Edgeley Park.

Sarcevic started for the Hatters on the second attempt, but it looked like an embarrassing night ahead when the Trotters were 2-0 up inside six minutes.

Paddy Madden clawed one back 20 minutes later, but it looked little more than a consolation when Amadou Bakayoko knocked in Bolton’s third.

Then one of County’s most memorable hours of football came along.

The Hatters got the score to 3-3 courtesy of Scott Quigley and Ash Palmer. Quigley put County ahead for the first time on the other side of the end of normal time.

By the time Ollie Crankshaw sealed a fifth, Edgeley Park was erupting. County had made an impossible job twice as hard in the beginning, and somehow still managed to come out on top.

Stockport and Bolton's story gained another chapter this season

Bolton did get revenge, of sorts, in the EFL Trophy in 2023, winning 2-0 at Edgeley Park, but it was a hollow victory in many senses, facing a heavily rotated side in a competition that was neither side’s priority.

For that reason, the FA Cup memories were still at the forefront of minds when the two met again, this time in League One, following a couple of incredible promotion years for County.

It couldn’t be worse than last time for Bolton, right? Arguably, it might have been.

Having finished third the season before, the Trotters, against newly promoted Stockport, were the favourite, yet were once again hit for five at Edgeley Park, this time without scoring a goal of their own.

With five different players on the scoresheet, it had been another afternoon of dominance for the Hatters.

Three upsets in as many years feels like a trend rather than a coincidence. Shaking off stubborn opponents Stockport on Saturday will be high on Schumacher’s task list.

Midweek slip won’t fill the Trotters with confidence

The build-up to the game was all going well for Schumacher’s men, holding Wrexham to a 0-0 stalemate and bouncing on to an impressive 3-1 routing of runaway league leaders Birmingham City.

That was, until the Tuesday before County’s visit, with the Hatters having a midweek rest, Bolton suffered a relatively humiliating 3-2 defeat to a struggling Bristol Rovers side.

It is not the ideal preparation, from the Trotters’ perspective, to welcome a side that has caused multiple problems in recent years.

It’ll be the first time Challinor has faced Bolton as Stockport manager with anyone other than Evatt in the opposite dugout.