Stockport manager Dave Challinor is keeping his feet firmly on the ground despite his side continuing their winning run with a 2-0 home victory against 10-man Tranmere.
The table-topping Hatters broke two more club records thanks to a 10th straight Sky Bet League Two victory and an 11th in all competitions.
Despite those hugely impressive achievements, Challinor is not getting carried away.
He said: “It’s always brilliant when you break a club record of course, and we are on a great run.
“But for me it’s just about ticking another one off.
“I know from my years as a manager that you must never take anything for granted.
“We’re doing well, yes, but then there’s the expectation that goes with it.
“I’ve always drummed into my players that there must never be a sense of entitlement there, we always have to earn every single point.
“At this level it’s tough, and there’s no free hits.
“We played some great football in League Two last season and went on some great runs, but ultimately we didn’t get promotion.
“That has to remain the goal.
“Today the sending-off changed the game just after half-time.
“It helped us, but there was also a slight lack of urgency at times.
“We had to be patient and in the end we’ve thoroughly deserved the three points.”
Stockport led at the interval thanks to Isaac Olaofe’s well-taken 12th goal of the season.
The hosts wrapped up victory through Antoni Sarcevic as struck shortly after Rovers’ Harvey Saunders was sent off after being shown a second yellow card.
It was another miserable day for Rovers boss Nigel Adkins, whose side slid into the drop zone.
This was a fourth straight loss and they are still pointless on the road this season.
Adkins said: “This was always going to be a huge challenge for us, we knew that. It was an uphill challenge.
“Stockport have got plenty of big threats so we had to try and stop them playing.
“We went behind after five minutes, but to be fair, after that the lads showed real resilience and at just 1-0 down at half-time, we were in the game.
“The sending-off straight after half-time changes the whole complexion, though.
“Despite that, we still created chances, and their keeper made two great saves.
“On another day we’d have got a VAR decision too for an offside that wasn’t.
“Stockport are top, we’re down near the bottom, so you don’t always get those decisions.
“We’ve just got to stick together as a group.
“We’ve got to learn the lessons from this and now we go into the FA Cup game next week looking to bounce back.”
'It will happen in a year, two years' - Ronaldo hints at retirement date
Cristiano Ronaldo says it will be one or two years before he retires from football as he aims to enjoy the end of his career.
The 39-year-old scored twice on Friday, including a stunning overhead kick, as Portugal cruised past Poland 5-1 in the Nations League, to clinch top spot of Group A1.
Overall, Ronaldo has now netted 910 times in his career, with 135 of those coming for Portugal, including five goals in five Nations League appearances this campaign.
Ronaldo has dropped hints in recent months though that his retirement is drawing closer, with his 40th birthday coming up in February, and he says his main goal is to enjoy playing football while he still can.
"Planning the retirement of football... It will happen in a year, two years, I don't know," Ronaldo said.
"I say honestly, it's not a joke, it's enjoying the moment, feeling that I'm enjoying football. Get up and go to training and to the game motivated.
"When I don't feel that, I'll step forward and say, 'I can't do it anymore.' It's an excellent career, I haven't felt it yet."
He was a standout once again for Portugal as he finished the match against Poland with a game-high 2.06 expected goals (xG), generated from five shots, the most of any player on the pitch.
Ronaldo hit the 900-goal mark in September, with many believing he would next be targeting 1,000 as another goal in his storied career.
The forward has scored 10 more goals since then but insisted he was not actively thinking about making it to four figures.
"If you ask me if I want to reach a thousand goals... It's normal to want it. But I don't think about it," he added.
"Think game by game. In three months, I will be 40 years old. It's about taking it easy and enjoying.
"That's what I've been doing, especially in the national team, which is where I like to play the most. I like to play for the national team, and I really enjoy coming here. Scoring goals and good performances helps too.
"Day by day. Enjoy goal after goal. Enjoy the moment. The thousand goals don't matter to me at all, honestly."
Indonesia 0-4 Japan: Visitors stay unbeaten with rout
Japan continued their unbeaten start to World Cup qualifying with a 4-0 victory over Indonesia on Friday.
Two goals from the visitors in either half were enough to seal the three points and get them back to winning ways after a stalemate with Australia last time out.
Ragnar Oratmangoen should have put Indonesia ahead, but he hesitated one-on-one with the goalkeeper, and Japan did not look back after that. They got a bit of fortune with their first goal, Justin Hubner deflecting a cross into his own net in the 35th minute.
Takumi Minamino got their second just before the break, finishing off a pacy counter-attack by darting onto the end of Kaoru Mitoma’s cross to sweep it past Maarten Paes.
While there was not much the goalkeeper could do with that one, he was at fault for the third as he gifted the ball to Hidemasa Morita, who coolly picked out the bottom corner just after the break.
Yukinari Sugawara came off the bench to round off the scoring in the 69th minute. He raced down the right wing and instead of looking to his options, he rifled it in from a tight angle at the near post.
Japan are up to 13 points after five games, sitting top of Group C, while Indonesia are bottom, still in search of their first win.
Data Debrief: Clinically done
For a team still chasing their first win, Japan are probably not high on the list of opponents they would want to face, and Indonesia were undone by their visitors.
Hajime Moriyasu's side created 0.79 expected goals (xG) to Indonesia's 0.72, while they only had four more shots than their hosts (12 compared to eight).
Japan took their chances, and though the win margin may look harsh, they were deserving of the three points, having dominated throughout the game.
Jamaica 0-1 United States: Pepi give visitors advantage in Nations League quarter-final
Ricardo Pepi's first-half strike gave the United States a 1-0 advantage over Jamaica after the first leg of their Concacaf Nations League quarter-final.
The hosts saw a penalty saved in the first half before their frustrations were compounded late on thanks to Mason Holgate's red card.
The USA had the lead just five minutes in – having smothered a Jamaica attack at one end, the visitors caught them out with a pacy counter-attack, with Pepi sweeping it into the back of the net.
Shortly after, Shamar Nicholson was brought down by Matt Turner when he tried to take it around him, but the goalkeeper made amends, diving low to his right to deny Demarai Gray from 12 yards.
In the second half, Holgate was denied a tap-in by Yunus Musah before Turner scrambled to stop Leon Bailey's corner from nestling into the net as Jamaica searched for an equaliser.
With 86 minutes on the clock, Holgate received a second yellow card in just over 10 minutes for dragging Brandon Vazquez back, meaning he will miss the return leg in Missouri on Monday.
Data Debrief: Hitting the mark
Pepi got the all-important goal on Thursday, and is the fourth player to score 12 goals for the USA before turning 22 years old, joining Landon Donovan, Jozy Altidore and Christian Pulisic.
But it was perhaps Turner who actually had the most vital interventions; he has now saved three of the eight penalties he's faced for the USA, including two against Jamaica.
Mauricio Pochettino also could not have asked for a better result from his first competitive game in charge of the Stars and Stripes as he became just the third full-time manager to win his first competitive away match, joining Bob Bradley (2008) and Steve Sampson (1996).
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