Challinor criticises Stockport fans who left during shootout

Dave Challinor led Stockport County to a third-placed finish in League One before their eventual play-off defeat by Leyton Orient

Stockport County boss Dave Challinor has criticised fans who left midway through the penalty shootout they lost to Leyton Orient in Wednesday's League One play-off semi-final second leg at Edgeley Park.

The Hatters were defeated 4-1 on penalties by Orient after the second leg finished 1-1 and 3-3 on aggregate.

Jack Diamond saw his penalty saved, while Ryan Rydel struck the post in the shootout.

Some fans had left before Orient struck the winning spot-kick.

"I get that there's disappointment. No-one's more disappointed than how much we are. There are players in the dressing room where it will live with them for the rest of their lives," Challinor told BBC Radio Manchester.

"They deserve better than people walking out. Maybe they thought the game was over."

Challinor has led Stockport to two promotions during his time with the club, taking them from the National League to the third tier.

Prior to this season's play-off campaign, they ended the season in third position, missing out on automatic promotion by five points.

"If the players walked off with five minutes to go, we wouldn't be in the position we're in. That is a bit of a frustration," he added.

"I get people may want to get away and avoid traffic and things, but our season has come to an end and I think it would have been nice and justified for people to have stayed in.

"The majority did, don't get me wrong, and I massively thank them for that, to appreciate what the players have done because the effort they've given for nine months has been incredible."

Stockport had prior experience of losing on penalties in the play-offs, having lost to Carlisle United on spot-kicks at Wembley in the 2023 League Two final.

Challinor's side went on to win the fourth tier title the following season, but he does not feel they will have things all their way in 2025-26.

"I don't in any way think it will be as easy as that. To go back to the play-off game against Carlisle, we were hampered by injuries. I felt in that season we deserved to be promoted, we were one of the best teams," he said.

"Unfortunately we've missed out at this stage. Football is ruthless, it moves on quickly."

A big summer awaits for the club as they look to make changes to their line-up in order to remain competitive next season.

Challinor said: "Obviously there are players out of contract and we need to look at our squad.

"There will be players at the club whose opportunities have been limited this year and will move on and it's my job to shape our squad in order to give ourselves the opportunity of being as successful next year as we have been this year.

"There certainly won't be an understanding from my perspective, as I imagine there will be from a lot of other people, that says that because we finished third this year that we'll just happily waltz to an automatic spot next year and get promoted.

"We've got to be better than this year not to stand still. And that becomes all of our jobs to make sure that happens."