Stockport boss Dave Challinor cherished “the best feeling ever” after his League Two champions were presented with their trophy following a 4-2 win against Accrington in their final home game.
County, who sealed the title earlier this week, collected the trophy after two goals from Kyle Wootton and further strikes by Connor Lemonheigh-Evans and Antoni Sarcevic saw them chalk up an eighth straight win.
And Challinor, who now has two titles as Stockport manager, said: “It’s finally started to sink in, this is the best feeling ever in terms of picking up the trophy and being able to celebrate with friends, family and supporters.
“It was always going to be a strange day because we wanted to win and we started fantastically, then we had a flat 30 minutes but in the second half we’ve won that game which makes today extra special.
“It’s been a great effort, a real team effort. Everyone’s worked so hard to get this fantastic trophy.
“People will say what’s the secret of your success but it isn’t much of a secret, it’s good players, it’s being able to get those players, being organised, having good staff and having the backing of people behind the scenes that ultimately are very aligned in what you want to achieve.
“All of us have had amazing support from our families to allow us to work in the manner that we do and today, and the last couple of weeks, make it all the more special because you get a reward at the end of it.
“So many people go through what we go through and don’t have the fortune of days like today so we’ll absolutely treasure it and enjoy it and we’ll be better as a result of it.
“I’ve now got plenty of time out of the country in front of me and plenty of work to do for next year, and it’ll be an opportunity to reflect and enjoy what we’ve done.”
Accrington manager John Doolan admitted his side had been beaten by deserving champions, but felt there are better times to come from his young squad in the future.
Stanley had levelled through Shaun Whalley in the first half and had given themselves a chance late on when Jack Nolan made it 3-2 but conceding goals at crucial times – Stockport’s second just before half time and Sarcevic’s late in the day – had proved costly.
“It was a great response from the lads to come here and play against a top side with top players and to compete against them and to score two goals away from home is fantastic,” said Doolan.
“We’ve got to keep going, these are young lads and they’re learning from it so it’s a learning experience and I’m learning on the job too so fair play to them, they didn’t give up. We made some changes so I can’t ask for any more.
“We went behind so once again it wasn’t a great start from us but we responded and we scored a very good goal against the champions. You could say they were in party mode but we were here to compete and to try to get the three points and the lads didn’t give up – that’s what I’m looking for.”
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).
Real Madrid hit Twente for seven, five-star Wolfsburg also win big
Real Madrid had six different goalscorers as they trounced Twente 7-0 in the Women's Champions League on Wednesday, while Wolfsburg beat Galatasaray 5-0.
Signe Bruun opened the scoring three minutes into the Group B encounter at the Estadio Alfredo Di Stefano, then Maria Mendez's header gave Madrid a 2-0 half-time lead.
Madrid, who had won one and lost one of their opening two games in the tournament, got a third through Naomie Feller five minutes into the second half, then Caroline Weir made it 4-0 with a brilliant free-kick.
Mendez headed home her second of the encounter shortly after the hour mark, while Oihane Hernandez and Carla Camacho got on the scoresheet late on to complete the rout.
The victory took Madrid second in the Group B standings ahead of Chelsea's trip to Celtic.
Wolfsburg were also convincing victors in Group A, getting off the mark for this season's competition as Rebecka Blomqvist scored a hat-trick in their 5-0 thrashing of Galatasaray.
The Bundesliga side – who failed to pick up a point or score a goal in their opening two matches – had a narrow 1-0 lead at half-time through Joelle Wedemeyer, before Blomqvist took centre-stage in the second period.
She tapped home after Janina Minge struck the crossbar, then added her second goal in the 77th minute and her third six minutes into stoppage time.
Vivien Endemann powered home a fifth for Wolfsburg one minute later, as they provisionally moved within three points of Lyon and Roma ahead of their meeting.
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