Carlisle United and their fans face a long bank holiday weekend with celebrations underway after a penalty shoot-out win at Wembley.
The Blues salvaged a 1-1 draw with a goal from Omari Patrick seven minutes from the end, and then a Tomas Holy save made all the difference in the penalty shoot out.
A 5-4 win from the spot means that United earned promotion to League One, a little over 12 months since they look destined for the National League.
But the arrival of homegrown Paul Simpson sparked a remarkable transformation of a football club going nowhere at the time, apart from a lower level.
They finished fifth in the final League Two table, disposed of Bradford City in the play-off semi-final and at Wembley saw-off the form team over the last few weeks of the season.
In the end it came down to goalkeeper Holy who made a fine save to deny Ryan Rydel’s penalty in the shoot-out – the only one of 10 kicks which didn’t find the net.
Taylor Charters, a young man who missed a fair biut of the season through injury, kept his cool to slot home the fifth penalty and send the 15,000 travelling fans wild with delight.
Carlisle had fallen behind after 34 minutes when Jon Mellish, in trying to block a cross from Isaac Olaofe deflected it beyond Holy into his own net.
Stockport had been the better side up to that point but Carlisle looked better the longer the game went on and after County defender Akil Wright missed a golden chance to head in a crucial second they got level.
Patrick gathered a poor defensive clearance and passed the ball past saw him roll a poor clearance past Ben Hinchcliffe for the equaliser.
There were no goals in extra time but Mellish’s deflection proved crucial as it put Antoni Sarcevic’s shot over the top. Holy tipped over a thundering effort from Jack Stretton while Hinchliffe made an instinctive save to beat away Dennis’ angled header.
On then to the penalty decider in which Kristian Dennis, Ryan Edmondson, Mellish, Owen Moxon and Charters all scored for Carlisle with Holy producing the one save to deny Stockport’s second spot kick from Rydel.
