Stockport County: Truck driving first-team player makes Championship tussle more remarkable | OneFootball

The goalkeeper performed miracles in his earlier career to juggle his job and football

Stockport County’s rise from the National League North to eyeing up a place in the Championship in the near future has been some journey.

It happened seemingly in the blink of an eye in hindsight, County were playing sixth-tier football as recently as 2019.

No player serves as much of a stark reminder of that rise as goalkeeper Ben Hinchliffe.

The progression he’s made at County over the past few years, in the latter stages of his career, is scarcely believable, but the way he started his Hatters career is important for remembering where the club has come from.

Hinchliffe’s County career started as a balancing act

Hinchliffe ended the 2023/24 season with the League Two title and Golden Glove in his trophy cabinet — as strong a claim as any to being the best gloveman in the division that year.

But few of his peers will be able to match the journey that the Preston-born shot-stopper has been on.

He signed for the club in 2016 after impressing at AFC Fylde, earning a reputation as one of the best goalkeepers at that level — it was something of a coup for County, who at that time were still operating on a shoestring budget under manager Jim Gannon, but few could have predicted how far he could go.

County at that time were still a part-time club, and Hinchliffe balanced his football and extra gym sessions with a truck driving job.

It created a personal schedule for Hinchliffe that few could cope with.

“I was on 4am starts,” he told the Athletic in 2023. “Even if we had played a night match, I had to be up at 3am. I’d get home in the afternoon, have half an hour’s sleep and then I was out to training.”

His job even saw him miss games on occasion, when he had to retake his Certificate of Professional Competence every year to keep his day job — the tests were only available on a Saturday, so County had to call on back-up goalkeepers.

It almost doesn’t seem like the same team that just a handful of years later is shooting for a place in the Championship, with the same former truck driver between the sticks.

He was still showing his importance in League One

With the club in League One as of the 2024/25 season, Hinchliffe is now, of course, a full-time professional footballer with County.

But rising as he has with the club, the vast majority of which has been in his 30s, is nothing short of incredible.

So well-loved at Edgeley Park is Hinchliffe that owner Mark Stott personally intervened and broke away from the club’s rules on contracts for older players to hand the County legend a two-year extension in the summer of 2024, with director of football Simon Wilson revealing that he’s expected to transition into a non-playing role with the club when he hangs up his gloves.

That may be some time, however. Although County did sign Corey Addai in the summer of 2024, with the idea seemingly for him to take the no.1 spot, Hinchliffe fought for his place in the League One side and won the battle on occasion, making some important contributions in the third tier.

With every promotion, voices suggest County may finally have reached a level beyond Hinchliffe, and every time he steps up his game.

There's no doubt Hinchliffe is already County legend

Regardless of how much Hinchliffe plays over the course of that two-year extension — and don’t bet against him being an important player — he has already secured his place as a legend at Edgeley Park.

No other player has experienced both sides of County’s fall and rise like Hinchliffe, and few would have shown the commitment he did in those early days, without the promise of later investment and multiple promotions — nobody embodies the recent history of County like him.

He’s played a key role in it all and his passion for the Hatters is evident every time he pulls on the shirt.

County will never have a legend with a story that compares to Hinchliffe’s.