OF ALL the many, many players who have pulled on a Stockport County shirt since 1883 the name of Harry Hardy is indelibly written in any book, or document, tracing the club's history.

The reason? Hardy became, and remains, the only player to be capped at full level by England whilst on County's books.

The occasion came on December 8^th 1924 when the Stockport-born goalkeeper kept a clean sheet in England's 4-0 win against Belgium at the Hawthorns, home of West Bromwich Albion.

Hardy, who had represented the Football League against the Irish League 2 months earlier, (another clean sheet in a 5-0 win), was also selected for England's tour of Australia in March 1925 but, unfortunately, he did not increase his number of 'caps' as the 5 'Test Matches' against the Aussies were not regarded as full internationals.

Hardy joined the Haters from Ward Street Old Boys, a famous amateur team in the town that's now, sadly, defunct.

He made his debut in a 3-0 defeat at Cardiff on September 4 1920 and went on to make a remarkable 170 consecutive appearances before he missed his first County game, a 1-1 draw with Southampton on October 11 1924, due to his involvement with the Football League representative side.

On his return from Australia he made just 11 further appearances before Everton paid £2,350, a considerable amount for a goalkeeper, to take him to Goodison Park in October 1925.

Hardy made 40 appearances for the Toffees, including 6 when they lifted the First Division title in 1928, before finishing his career at Bury.

Was Hardy County's greatest goalkeeper? That debate will linger on. His statistics, though, in the Hatters' Division Three (North) championship season in 1922, make remarkable reading.

Hardy was an ever-present conceding just 21 goals, a club record that stands to this day. He kept 23 clean sheets in his 38 games, which included a quite incredible 20 from his side's opening 27 games of the campaign.

Hardy also holds the club's individual goalkeeping record for not conceding a goal. When Blackpool's Barrass scored a 77^th minute goal at Edgeley Park on April 30 1921 Hardy was not beaten again until Tommy Robson scored an own goal at Southport on October 8 1921 & 755 minutes later.

The goalkeeping legend, who was an accomplished oboist spending 13 years as a professional musician, sadly passed away in his hometown on February 17 1969.

Harry Hardy's full league record: