Stephen ‘Piggo’ Piggott

Cheadle Town Football Club were devastated to learn of the passing of former player and coach Stephen ‘Piggo’ Piggott on Wednesday evening.

Club Secretary Stuart Crawford reflects on his memories of Piggo and his time at Cheadle Town Football Club.

As I write this article, I still cannot believe the news of Piggo’s passing on Wednesday evening.

Piggo joined Cheadle Town around 2008 from Stone Dominoes, and little did I know that he would become part of the set up for many years to come. Whether Piggo was playing or coaching, he was always one of the first at the ground helping out to prepare for the game, which included hanging up the kit, filling the water bottles and he became our resident minibus driver taking players and volunteers up and down the North West to away games.

I always loved to discuss football stuff with Piggo before the game in the dressing room, as well as reminiscing about the past, which is something I’ve missed this season since he joined West Didsbury & Chorlton. Whichever Management Team setup came in, Piggo quickly became part of that team and was a massive influence in the dressing room. This has been evident these last couple of days with the outpouring of condolence messages from former managers and players on Facebook and X.

I could probably write a book on all the stories I have about Piggo, but two of them sum up the appreciation that I had for him.

My first Piggo memory was back in October 2014 when Cheadle Town faced a Russian U19’s side in a hastily arranged friendly at Mottram Hall. Unfortunately a 22-0 thumping by the Russian U19’s elevated the Football Club to viral status on social media as pretty much every news outlet got hold of this story and wanted to know more. Whilst Piggo was between the sticks that afternoon, the media really didn’t report on the fact that the Cheadle Town side was predominately made up of Reserve and U21 players as the First Team had played the day before. But typical Piggo, he volunteered to help the Football Club to play another game on the Sunday. Ever since that day, it’s always been a long standing joke of how Piggo conceded 22 goals in one game, and he always took it in his stride.

That game is still evident on the internet through a quick search, and I love the comments made by Piggo when he spoke to the Independent after the game…

‘I pulled off a few good saves, maybe some world class ones. I probably kept the score under the 30s.’

‘The Russians seemed to have the wind behind them. Every shot they had in the first half seemed to hit the target.’

‘Some of the lads' heads did begin to drop but I tried to keep their heads up and told them to keep going.’

‘There were a lot of tired legs and a few niggling injuries. We had some young players in and we weren't all used to playing together.’

That was typical Piggo, always looking for the positives and never dwelling on the negatives.

Finally, I know Piggo shared this joyous moment with me when Cheadle Town finally got promotion to the North West Counties Football League Premier Division in 2022/23. It was joys of tears in both of our eyes at the end of the game against Sandbach United as we’d finally achieved our dreams of success. We had both seen the bad times at Cheadle Town when we had no money, a stadium in disrepair and wondering whether we could survive each season. So to both witness and be part of the celebrations at the end of the game will live in my memory for the rest of my life, and I know Piggo was of the same opinion.

As I mentioned earlier, players come and go and I’m lucky to be friends with many still, but Piggo was certainly the special one in terms of Cheadle Town, and I’ll miss him so much. I just hope Marshy and Yarwood can do what they did at Cheadle Town a couple of seasons ago, and get promotion with West Didsbury & Chorlton in Piggo’s memory.

My thoughts obviously go out to Piggo’s wife Lisa, his father-in-law Alan Griffiths who also sadly lost his wife last year and Piggo’s parents. Piggo was one of the good guys and was certainly taken too soon.

Stuart Crawford
(Club Secretary)