County fans in the near-9,000 gate against Accrington Stanley on Christmas Day 1956 were given the best possible present - a goal after just SEVEN seconds.

Yes, that's right. The Hatters took the lead an amazing seven seconds after the restart when Ray Drake netted in the Division Three (North) clash.

Although Ray has fond memories of his record-breaking goal against Accrington Stanley the forward, who still lives a stone's throw away from Edgeley Park, has even fonder memories of an earlier game against Derby County.

Why? Well it was against the Rams, also in 1956, that he marked his County debut with a goal at the Railway End (pictured).

Had County unearthed another Alf Lythgoe or Jack Connor? Not even those deadly marksmen could have bettered Ray's start.

Born in the town on October 24^th, 1934, an attack of meningitis when he was only three years old left Ray completely deaf in one ear and with only severely restricted hearing in the other. He attended the Royal Residential School for the Deaf in Old Trafford until he left in 1950 to become a clerk at the Co-op in Chestergate.

Ray had played football at school and for the Co-op team before joining Bramhall, then playing in the Lancashire & Cheshire League.

Opportunity knocked for young Drake when his boss tuned out to be a County season ticket holder, and it was he who encouraged Ray to come along to Edgeley Park for a trial.

He showed what he could do with two goals in a game and so impressed manager Dick Duckworth that he was signed on semi-professional forms at £3 a week with a bonus of £1 for a win and 10 shillings (50p) for a draw.

Ray had, like Liverpool's Steve Heighway later, stepped from little Bramhall into the paid game.

But first there were the preliminaries to go through, Ray had to prepare for the ultimate step up when, still working at the Co-op but given as much time off as he required to further his career by an understanding boss (and County fan), he spent the next three seasons banging them in for the Reserves.

And what a tally! Season 1954-55, 69 goals in 46games; 1955-56, 59 in 41. Including the Boxing Day demolition of Cheadle Rovers, all eight goals in an 8-1 win.

Still, Ray had to wait almost a further 12 months for his first-team debut, with former England B international Bill Holden holding down the main striking role at the time. But when the chance came the now 22-year-old, whose dynamic boots did his talking, was no about to let it slip by.

His goal against Derby, after just 14 minutes, was the first of seven in his opening half-dozen games. Alan Daley and player-manager Willie Moir later added goals in a 3-2 win in front of 11,492.

The Rams, incidentally, were crowned Division Three (North) champions that season finishing four points ahead of runners-up Hartlepools United. County ended a satisfactory campaign back in 5^th place, nine points behind the champions.

Two goals at Mansfield in his next game preceded another, this time against Southport. Many spectators peering through the mist, felt he may have been offside, but the whistle never came - Ray wouldn't have heard it anyway - and County were ahead, on their way to a 2-0 win later augmented by Frank Clempson's penalty.

It took Ray 11 first team games to score his first hat-trick in a 5-1 County win at Gateshead and, in the very next game, he went one better by netting all four against Wrexham at Edgeley Park.

Such was his growing reputation that there was even talk of a swap deal with Bolton Wanderers involving the great Nat Lofthouse, who had fallen foul of a club rule barring any player becoming a licensee.

It was a disagreement with Moir that led to Ray leaving County, being transfer-listed at £1,000 after scoring 19 goals from just 22 League games and, in total in his five-year stay, an amazing 234 in 201 matches.

Headington United (now Oxford United) wanted Ray, but he preferred to stay part-time combining his job at the Co-op with playing for Altrincham.

He later worked at Parkinson's bookmakers and played for three years at Hyde United and then Cheadle Rovers, managed at the time by former County defender Fred Kenny.