Gannon Admits County Aren’t At Freeflowing Best

But he was happy his players didn’t fall into the same trap as previous seasons and gift points away after fending off Ashton United.

County beat the strugglers 2-1 but despite going into a two goal lead the end of the game wasn’t without complications.

The gap in the National League North title race is back to four points.

Stockport have a game in hand still and will travel to leaders Chorley on April 20 in what is looking like a crunch fixture.

“It's nice to be here on 69 points, which is what we got last season, and hopefully we can make it 72 on Saturday,” he said via the club’s twitter account.

“Ultimately I’m pleased with the effort and the result. It was important after Saturday to get back to winning ways, it's a nice feeling.

“We didn't make a big deal of the loss, we just switched our focus to the next game, yesterday it was all about Ashton, now it's all about Darlington.

“I don't think we've been at our best for a while, no-one's at their maximum, maybe it's tiredness or mental fatigue and we need to work through that.

“We had this issue last season where we take control of the game and suddenly give the other team hope, but we have to accept where we are and be resilient.'

“We just have to tidy up and get rid of some of the little rough edges that have been coming back in. We'll need to improve when playing the better sides.”