'El Hattico' and the Wembley final where nicknames clash

Both Luton Town and Stockport County are known as the Hatters [Reuters (left) Getty Images (right)] Fans at two League One football teams have been locking horns over who lays claim to a nickname they share. Both Luton Town and Stockport County are known as the Hatters, a nod to both towns' illustrious history of hat-making. The sides are now due to meet at Wembley in Sunday's EFL Vertu Trophy final, unofficially dubbed "El Hattico".

And while most eyes will be focused on action on the pitch, Luton historian Roger Wash and Stockport fan writer Des Hinks have a score to settle off it. "We've got the world's only museum dedicated to hat-making, so I think we can rightly claim ourselves as the Hatters," insists Hinks. But Wash believes he has already pipped Stockport to the post, being the proud owner of the Hatters Heritage website URL.

"A couple of people from Stockport have actually asked us about this, but I said, 'The one thing you can't have is a website that has Hatters in the name'," Walsh laughs. Luton's hat-making history is reflected in the appearance of its football club's mascots [Roger Wash] The pair's friendly joust has been upping the stakes for what happens when their sides clash on Wembley's iconic turf. The sides drew 1-1 in their warm-up for the final on 21 March , so it is anyone's guess who will come out on top.

In Hinks and Wash's debate, it could be argued that Luton will take an early psychological lead in the form of their mascots. The Kenilworth Road side is represented by Happy Harry and Happy Hatty, whereas Stockport lost their hat representation when they swapped their Harry the Hatter for a brown bear called Vernon. Hinks, who edits The Scarf My Father Wore, a website dedicated to Stockport County, says: "Actually, Harry the Hatter's hat was quite scary looking, so we've gone for a more friendly-looking bear.