Sutton head north tomorrow, completing a run of nine games in twenty eight days with a game at Stockport County, one of the favourites to feature in the National League championship picture this season. It’s been a bit of a stop start season in the league for Stockport, to the extent that last Saturday’s 2-0 win at Bromley was their first league game since a 2-1 home defeat against Weymouth on the last day of October, with a break in November due to positive Covid tests, and progress in the FA Cup which saw them win a local derby at Rochdale in the first round and then beat Yeovil after extra time to earn a plum home tie against West Ham next month.

However that win at Bromley, and a follow up success at Barnet on Tuesday, has seen Stockport move in to the top five and, having played only nine games, they have three in hand over leaders Torquay and four in hand over U’s, who are seven points ahead of them in second place. Their squad includes several players who have experience of gaining promotion from the National League, and during the summer the signing of last season’s National League Player of the Year John Rooney from Barrow was a statement of their intent to look to reclaim the Football League place they lost in 2011.

U’s, who have lost only once away from Gander Green Lane this season, will be looking to bounce back after Tuesday’s defeat against Chesterfield. Omar Bugiel will again be missing from the squad as he serves the final game of his suspension. Both games between the sides last season, the only meetings between the clubs, finished goalless.

Stockport will be providing a live stream of Saturday’s game, which will be played behind closed doors due to Stockport being in a Tier 3 area. The charge is £7.50, and passes can be bought here. When registering, tick the ‘away fan’ box so that the purchase will be registered to Sutton United, as we are entitled to a share of the revenue should the number of Sutton supporters subscribing exceed 50% of our average attendance last season.

Unfortunately Stockport are not permitting live audio commentaries on their home games by anyone other than the BBC, who have a contractual arrangement with the National League, and therefore we regret we are unable to provide a Mixlr commentary on the game. For those unable to watch the live stream, there will be Twitter updates through the afternoon.