League Two play-off final: Boss Dave Challinor hails Stockport's 'unique' owner

Stockport fans celebrated their team's play-off semi-final win over Salford on the pitch

Stockport manager Dave Challinor has thanked the club's "unique" owner Mark Stott as he prepares for Sunday's League Two play-off final.

County face Carlisle at Wembley, just 12 months on from returning to the English Football League.

In their decade in non-league, the club went down to the sixth tier and were forced part-time before the revival.

After promotion back to the National League in 2019, Stockport businessman Stott bought the club, and he brought in serial winner Challinor.

With Stott and Challinor at the helm, Stockport have been restored to the financial and football health that saw them rise up to the second tier in the 1990s under Danny Bergara and Dave Jones.

Challinor, a former Stockport centre-back, had just led Hartlepool back into the league in 2021, knocking out the Hatters in the play-off semi-final before coming through a tense penalty shoot-out against Torquay at Ashton Gate.

He had also led Colwyn Bay and Fylde, twice, to non-league promotions, and after defeating Salford City on penalties in last week's League Two semi-final, now has his sights on his first league promotion.

Stott has cleared a £7.7million debt, given County a new training ground, spruced up the stadium and revamped its commercial department, as well as providing funds for Challinor to improve his squad.

Challinor, however, says Stott is not an owner who is constantly on the manager's case, demanding returns for his investment.

"Mark's been great - he has a team that works in this business and his other businesses and have come together really well and put a plan in place for the club to move forward," he told BBC Radio Manchester.

"Off the pitch is out of our control, our job is on the pitch, but if they can run together, you have a great opportunity of getting the club back to where it was when I was a player. That's really difficult.

"In terms of his involvement he is, as he looks, ridiculously laid back. We don't see a great deal of him and he lets us get on with our stuff. But we know that if we need anything, he is there to help.

"That's probably unique for a lot of owners in terms of how they go about it, and it's working with us."

Stockport were still in contention for automatic promotion on the final day of the league season, having been 19th in October after winning just two of their first 11 games.

A run of just one defeat in their final 18 matches saw them comfortably into the play-off spots and now just 90 minutes from being in League One for the first time since 2010, when promotion, under Jim Gannon, was quickly tainted by debts of over £500,000, administration and successive relegations.

Optimism abounds at Edgeley Park these days, with Stott setting his sights on achieving "great things" with the club.

"Everyone who comes to the club knows, and it's the reason I first came here, what the hope is, what the plan is, and no-one puts greater expectation on me than myself," said Challinor.

"What you have to understand is that you have 24 teams and four of them can be successful, if being promoted is success - it can be measured in different ways.

"We have to continue to move forward, and we have, so that's success. It is now palpable in that we can become a League One team.

"This club will become a League One club. We are so close and that enhances the optimism we have built over the last 18 months.

"It would mean everything to have the opportunity to get an EFL promotion after 13 years of managing clubs and winning promotion from non-league is amazing."