Stockport County attacker will never be forgotten for his 2018/19 role in kickstarting League One rise | OneFootball

Matty Warburton deserves a lot of credit for his role in County’s subsequent rise through the leagues

Matty Warburton will forever be a crucial part of Stockport County’s story.

Before Mark Stott’s money had arrived. Before the Hatters could recruit players with Premier League experience. Before Dave Challinor turbocharged County’s ascent through the leagues, there was Warburton banging in the goals.

This was the era of Jim Gannon and his thrifty – and more often than not free – transfers, and he got few as right as Warburton.

Despite often playing at the tip of midfield, the former Curzon Ashton man was County’s talisman that year, notching almost double the goals of anyone else in the team, leading his side to the title and bagging himself a move to the Football League.

Jim Gannon knew exactly what he was getting with Matty Warburton

Gannon’s knowledge of the non-league scene – and his use of that knowledge to unearth hidden gems and build a competitive squad – is often credited for County’s National League North title win in 2018/19.

And it’s easy to see why. It’s that same know-how that led him to work hard to secure Warburton’s signature a season earlier, in 2017.

Speaking on Warburton's signing, Gannon said: “Securing his signature as the pivotal number 10 attacker was important in our vision of the team’s attacking structure for next season. The signings we make this season will be crucial to our chances of further progress as a team and success as a club.

“I have been a long-time admirer of his and how he has progressed. I feel he has matured considerably as a player over the last season.

“He clearly has an impressive goal-scoring record but I feel he will bring much more than just that. We want presence and penetration up front to get goals, but we will need craft and creativity as well.”

Looking back at what Warburton achieved, Gannon couldn’t have been closer to the truth.

Matty Warburton’s second Stockport County season will go down in history

The attacker was no slouch in his first season, notching 16 goals in 36 appearances on the way to County securing a play-off spot in the 2017/18 season.

But it’s the season after that will be the most memorable, for what it meant to the club, the town, and how crucial his role it all was.

He smashed home 18 goals that season, almost double the ten strikes secured by frontman Frank Mulhern that year.

From an attacking midfielder, it’s an incredible scoring record.

He did it in some of the toughest moments, too: a hat-trick against Chorley early in the season – who would go on to run County extremely close later on – and another trio of goals against York City further down the line.

And one of the most important: the second goal in County’s 3-0 win against Nuneaton, making comfortable what had been an incredibly tense affair, where the Hatters needed a result on the final day to earn promotion.

Without Warburton, there’s no doubt, that season would have looked very different.

Matty Warburton’s legacy will always be strong at Edgeley Park

That promotion to the National League and the work Gannon had done with players like Warburton were keenly noted by Stott in his first interview when he took over the club.

The businessman may well have taken over the club anyway, but he will know only too well how much more attractive a proposition a club beginning its rise is, rather than taking one on in freefall.

It made for a much easier start for Stott, a springboard to start looking immediately at promotion to the Football League.

And for that springboard, there are few men to thank more than Warburton, for dragging County to the National League North title and, with it, kickstarting the club’s rise up the leagues.