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'They dug in, they were strong'

21/ 5/2008

A MEDIA scrum greeted a humble Jim Gannon after Saturday’s heroic single-goal win over Wycombe booked County their place at Wembley Stadium.

After initial champagne cork-popping moments in the main stand had died down and all the jubilant Hatters fans had cleared the Edgeley Park pitch, Gannon was left to once again speak candidly and eloquently about how his young team have now made it to within 90 minutes of a quite wonderful promotion.

Wembley is a mouth-watering prospect for everyone in Stockport of course, but Gannon is now determined to go on and win there against Rochdale on Monday.

The now legendary Irishman said: "It’s a nice feeling, I’m so pleased for the players, the fans, and everyone connected with the club.

"I wanted to push on and win the tie today, but I was conscious of leaving our destiny in the hands of the players.

"They dug in deep, they were strong.

"I was very proud to be a player here, this is the club I love, but to lead the players out at Wembley is going to be a dream for me. I can’t wait until next Monday now.

"I’ve got an excellent group of professionals here, and I’m delighted for them.

"We’ve got the momentum too, so there’s no reason why we can’t go on and win and get that promotion now."

As the microphones and dictaphones shuffled as the umpteen journalists in the County press room continued to jockey for position, Gannon went on to praise his match-winner Liam Dickinson, who produced a memorable individual strike to win the game in just the seventh minute.

Gannon added: "Liam just did what he’s been doing for us all season, it was a fantastic individual goal.

"He’s got skill and pace that you don’t often see at this level of football.

"He lifted the crowd, he lifted the players, and they all showed some manly performances.

"This run of ours is definitely bringing the town back to life, and I’m so proud to be involved with a team that is bringing the pride back to Stockport."

As for Gannon’s opposite number Paul Lambert, he was unsurprisingly dejected after Saturday’s game.

There had been something of a war of words raging between the two managers in the run-up to last weekend’s second leg, but the pair did make an effort to shake one another’s hand after the final whistle.

As Lambert spoke to the press some half-an-hour after the match, he appeared to hint that he may now have had enough of managing Wycombe.

He admitted it was nothing to do with his ‘fantastic’ players, but he did say: "I will be thinking about my future over the next few days.

"At this point I really don’t know what I’m going to do, it’s an emotional game.

"There’s lots of things going through my brain right now, but I’ve had a great two years at Wycombe.

"The players have all been fantastic, but we’ve just fallen at the last hurdle today.

"We gave it everything we had, but it just wasn’t enough."