Oldham Athletic defender Jamie Stott has returned to Stockport County for his third loan spell at Edgeley Park in less than a year.
The popular 21-year-old goes straight into the squad for Saturday’s mouth-watering clash with Spennymoor Town.Jamie, who has been involved with Oldham since the age of eight, has made three appearances for Latics in League Two during the last month since returning to Boundary Park under new boss Paul Scholes.
His recent loan spell with County led to a remarkable sequence of results as Jamie made 18 starts for the Hatters and lost just once, in the FA Cup tie at Barnet.
He ended his loan in dramatic style scoring the last-minute winner at FC United in January before his team mates gave him a guard of honour in front of the jubilant travelling fans at Broadhurst Park.
County boss Jim Gannon said: “Jamie grew and grew over the course of his time with us and I’m really pleased that we’ve played a part in his progress.
“At the time we wished him a fond farewell as he returned to Oldham and he went straight back into their team, but the door has always been open here if he found he wasn’t playing regularly and if Oldham felt it was important for him to be playing games.
“Everybody knows what Jamie did here and everybody knows what he brought to the team and it’s fantastic to have him back and I’m really looking forward to having him involved on Saturday.”
With Lewis Baines already on loan from Fleetwood Town, there is now real competition on the left side of County’s defence. Jim said: “Obviously we’re committed to Lewis who has been a capable deputy, but we wanted to strengthen the squad, especially now we’ve progressed to the last four in the FA Trophy.
“Given the number of games we have in a short space of time, we’re going to need a strong squad – with Jamie, alongside Lewis, Scott Duxbury, Jordan Keane, Dan Cowan, we’ve got genuine competition for every single position, which can only be a good thing.”
Jim has been monitoring Jamie closely over the past month and says he jumped at the chance to renew the loan: “Oldham know how much we admire Jamie and we were always hopeful that if they decided he needed to be playing games rather than sitting in the squad we would be the first club they rang, and that was the case.
“Oldham have been very respectful of the part we’ve played, they’ve got an established pairing at centre half, so Jamie has been moved to left-back which unfortunately is not his best position, but Jamie wants to play football and we’ve just been keeping an eye on the situation.
“We could lose Lewis or Jamie to a recall, of course, but we’ve used Lewis in a back two and a back three, as well as left-back, so Lewis is very much part of the squad. There’s great competition for places and there are a few players who have to realise that they can’t have a dip in form because we’ve got players who can step in and take their place.”
Under EFL rules regarding 93-day loans Jamie will be available for every remaining County fixture except for the scheduled trip to Nuneaton on the final day of the season, as his loan ends on Friday 26 April, a period of 57 days, which brings us to the maximum of 93 days for a short loan, which is different to National League rules.
Welcome back to County, Jamie!
