County Fire Warning Ahead Of BT Sport Trip To Chesterfield

They’ve just put five past Wealdstone on the road after two impressive home victories.

His new signing John Rooney, meanwhile, has scored five goals from midfield in the last 125 minutes of football.

Yet their manager still has the hump they dropped points on the first day of the season.

“I’m still hurting a little bit from the Torquay game!” Gannon said following Tuesday’s eventually-come-good win in north west London.

“A draw there and we are top of the league - I wish we could have spread our goals around a bit.

“We are looking like we’re getting better and better, but I want us to be relentless in our pursuit of being better.

“Some players are still lacking a little bit of confidence but I want every player to do that little bit more.”

Three wins from four after that first day set-back represents a solid haul when you consider the pressure placed on shoulders after all that summer talk.

Big signings and unwavering backing from the club’s new owner gave them a real platform to build from.

Now Saturday tea time at Chesterfield, a game live on BT Sport, gives them their first chance to showcase the new and improved Stockport County to the nation.

Gannon, though, is clear. The side who have scored eight goals in their past two outings are only just getting going - and they will get stronger.

They, he stresses, simply need to if they are to keep pace.

“I really do think there is more to come,” he told the club’s video service ahead of the first of two games against the Spireites on back-to-back weekends, thanks to a challenging FA Cup draw on Thursday.

“Tuesday masked a lot of bits of what concerned me about how they got their goals and our general play.

“We weren’t great and we do need to do better. I was disappointed in some parts of our performance. I have said a few times, we need to trust ourselves - and trust the group.

“There are a lot of things we need to improve on and a lot of work to be done - and that’s not me being a perfectionist, there’s a lot of things we need to address.

“When we play the stronger teams they won’t let us back in.”

What Chesterfield manager John Pemberton would give to be picking holes in a three-game winning run.

His side also went down to a late Torquay winner at Plainmoor, theirs coming on Tuesday, while in their first outing they were edged out at home to Hartlepool.

But County, be concerned. They are pretty good when it comes to playing teams with a three-win record from their four games.

Chesterfield pulled great-starters Woking apart on Matchday Three - that 4-0 win demonstrating how good they can be when things click.

Pemberton and his players are still damaged from Torquay’s 94th minute sucker-punch but was quick to remind people that progress is being made ahead of the live encounter this weekend.

“Everybody needs patience but we are not going to get patience if we are not winning football matches,” said the manager in Thursday’s press conference ahead of the big weekend game.

“I think we are in a better position than what we were six or seven months ago, but it is still working progress.

“I have still got a lot of work to do - I understand that responsibility - but we are trying hard to move forward as a club.

“We were near the bottom of the league and five points adrift when I came in.

“In the space of about 15 games, we have got a better balance to our squad so we are improving but it is not something that we can improve overnight. It is small steps.”

The manager wants his side to channel their frustration from midweek.

“We’ve got to lick our wounds and bounce back and start again on Saturday - but if we defend like we did in the 95th minute then we will get beat,” Pemberton warned.

“I was angry because it is a game that we lost that we should not have lost - but we lost it because we lost concentration in the 95th minute. It killed us.”

PICTURES BY MIKE PETCH & TINA JENNER