Stockport ace Antoni Sarcevic living on the edge of heaven

By MATT BADCOCK

TWELFTH MAN: Over 10,000 fans packed into Edgeley Park for Stockport’s FA Cup replay with Bolton Wanderers.

PICTURE: Mike Petch

Antoni Sarcevic

ANTONI SARCEVIC says nights like Stockport County’s first round replay win are why he joined the Hatters – and they’d love another at Rotherham on Friday.

In full gaze of the nation, live on BBC, the National League side produced an epic comeback from two goals down inside five minutes to beat Bolton Wanderers 5-3 in extra time.

The victory – following a 2-2 draw at League One Wanderers in the first game – has ignited Dave Challinor’s managerial reign after his arrival from Hartlepool United.

Sarcevic arrived at Edgeley Park only recently from Bolton and was able to play his part in the replay glory.

And the 29-year-old attacker is loving every minute of his County experience so far.

“Being a local lad way, Stockport was always a club in the back of my mind to try and get down to play for,” the former r England C man told The NLP. “Not only that but, now, with the direction the club is going, the facilities – listen, they are probably better than I’ve seen previously. Then the ambitions and where I’m at with my career, all of that played a part.

“It’s been nice, in a polite way, stick two fingers up at people who say, ‘Oh, you’ve dropped down’ and stuff like that. You watch us the other night and if you were a neutral looking in, you’d say we were the League One team. The dominance in the game speaks volumes.

“Honestly, even at 2-0 down, I just felt, ‘This game isn’t done’. For the night it turned out to be, I just knew we were still in that game.”

So it proved with Ash Palmer atoning for his first-half own goal with an equaliser to force extra-time where Scott Quigley and Ollie Crankshaw goals saw them home. In truth, there was only ever going to be one winner.

And the feel-good factor under new boss Challinor is palpable.

“Obviously I was only with Simon (Rusk) a couple of days, but with the gaffer coming in now and the experience of this league – his previous with Stockport – everything is set up to have a successful season,” Sarcevic added.

“He’s got all the success so as players you take note straight away. At the minute, our results and performances are speaking for themselves.

“But, like the gaffer said af-ter Tuesday night, no one is getting carried away. This is just the start.” Tuesday night’s 5-0 victory over King’s Lynn Town made it two wins and a draw from Challinor’s opening three league games ahead of a trip to Wealdstone yesterday.

After that, attention will turn to their trip to League One leaders Rotherham.

Free hit

Former Chester man Sarcevic is already showing his qualities on his return to Non-League.

A star for Chester, he landed a move to Fleetwood where he won promotion from League Two before doing the same on two occasions with Plymouth and again at Bolton.

And he wants another promotion medal with the Hatters.

“I won’t go into everything that happened at Bolton but it happened for a reason and it’s led me to a club that has always been in the back of my mind,” he said.

“To be a part of something at a local team to me, be part of trying to get them back in the league and everything that goes with that is important.

“A massive point for me in making the move is I want to enjoy my football again, as simple as that.

“You see the 5,000 fans the club took to Bolton, then we obviously filled out ours for the replay, and on Tuesday against a team that are near the bottom of the league there was more than 4,500.

“I think they are realising we could do something really good here. They will be at Rotherham in their numbers.

“We go there with a bit of a free hit. I’ve played Rotherham this season with Bolton and they will be up there in League One this year, no doubt. They’re on a really good run at the minute.

“But, listen, it’s the FA Cup – that’s what it’s about. We’ve got nothing to fear, we don’t have anything to prove. We’ve just got to carry on the way we are and, if we do that, we have a chance of another good result.”

LOB: Scott Quigley scores Stockport’s fourth goal against Bolton