Stockport County 3-2 Rochdale

Stockport County won promotion to League One with a historic Wembley win over local rivals Rochdale on Monday at Wembley.

County came from 1-0 down to win 3-2 at the national stadium to send 18,000 County fans mental at the final whistle.

Jim Gannon decided to go with the front three that had got him to Wembley, Pilkington, Rowe and Dickinson, which meant McSweeney was dropped from the semi-final line up.

Getting into Wembley was a great occasion for everybody entering the stadium for the first time. Walking up the steps and into the actual arena was just an amazing sight.

But it wouldn’t mean anything if you lost the game, it would just be a very very long trip home for the set of supporters which lost.

The game started slowly, County enjoyed the lion share of possession but it was Rochdale who took the lead after 25 minutes.

Chris Dagnall had a shot from the edge of the area, it was deflected and ended up brushing the side of the net, many Rochdale fans thought it had gone in and started to celebrate – only to be taunted by County fans when they realised it hadn’t.

But from the following corner, and my brother called it, Rochdale scored. A near post corner resulted in a header into an open net for McArdle who climbed highest and nodded the ball into the back of the net to the delight of the Rochdale fans at the other end of the ground.

Would County panic? Jim Gannon and Peter Ward just stood and talked, they didn’t start shouting and balling, they believed in their team, there was 65 minutes left.

Rochdale were struggling to keep up with the movement and passing of the County players, it showed in the stats that 17 fouls were committed by Rochdale to the 7 by County.

And one of those free kicks nearly resulted in the equaliser. From a position where many expected Michael Rose to strike it, Anthony Pilkington went across the goal, it dipped and swerved and it was liturally a balls width from going in.

But County were in search of the equaliser and from another set piece was where County got the goal. A short Tommy Rowe corner was passed to Gleeson, who passed back to Rowe, he ran and swung the ball in from a better angle, it caused confusion in the box and it ended up going in off Stanton’s hand. County were back in it and it finally gave the fans and the daytrippers the lift they needed.

The half time whistle went and from here on in it was all County as they dominated the second half.

Just four minutes into the second half County took the lead infront of the County fans. County had a throw in and it was obviously a training ground method of working the throw in. Michael Rose took the throw in, five yards from the corner flag, short to Rowe, Rowe passed it back to Rose who swung a cross in, it bounced wickedly and skidded on, but Pilkington read it perfectly, guiding a header into the top of the net off the cross bar on the way – 2-1 to County!

County continued to dominate, keeping the ball tightly, Rochdale couldn’t touch it at times as County passed precisely and effeciently.

Just less than 20 minutes later County doubled their one goal lead and made it 3-1. Paul Turnbull played the ball over the top and got Anthony Pilkington in behind, Pilkington squared the ball across for Dickinson, Dickinson fired the ball superbly low into the bottom corner past Tommy Lee to make it 3-1 to County!!

Absolute madness in the County end of Wembley, everybody was jumping on everybody, people who didn’t know each other were hugging, was this finally to be our year at Wembley!?

Promotion songs were being sung, there were 20 minutes to go, but after watching our team hang on for 85 minutes against Wycombe with a 1 goal lead, we had to hang on for 20 minutes with a 2 goal lead surely?

Tommy Rowe went close to making it 4-1, if he would have squared the ball to Pilkington it would have been, but he went for glory and fired his shot low into the side of the net.

But Rochdale ensured a nervous last ten minutes, Adam Rundle volleyed past Conrad Logan from the edge of the area and it was 3-2.

County kept the ball well, they defended excellently and occasionally broke away.

But when Michael Rose made the tackle of the match in the 93rd minute, the ball fell to Gleeson, who knocked it to Rowe and the final whistle went to bring an end to one of the greatest matches in Stockport County’s history.

Everybody went mental, its hard to some up the reaction in words, Gareth Owen charged towards the County fans from the other night, he jumped over the wall and was celebrating with his County fans. The rest of the players followed, the celebrations started.

Of course the little matter of walking up to the Royal Box to collect the trophy still have to be completed, and Jim Gannon couldn’t have been any prouder as he watched Gareth Owen leading the young team up the steps and collecting the League Two play-off trophy.

The players came back down onto the pitch, the celebrations started and there will be many pictures and videos which sum it up nicely.

Leeds, Leicester, Millwall next season for County. Exeter, Bournemouth and Aldershot next season for Rochdale.