There was Wembley agony for former Hartlepool United manager Dave Challinor.

Former Hartlepool United manager Dave Challinor experienced heartache at Wembley as his Stockport County side were beaten by Bolton Wanderers in Sunday’s League One play-off final.

Challinor enjoyed a successful spell in charge of Pools and guided the club back into the EFL in June 2021 when they claimed a dramatic penalty shoot-out win against Torquay United in the National League promotion final. After penning a new deal in September of the same year, Challinor departed just under two months later after making a ‘ridiculously difficult’ decision to step down before accepting an offer to take charge of then-National League club Stockport.

After leading the Hatters to a National League title win during his first season in charge, Challinor claimed another promotion when his side were crowned as League Two champions during the 2023/24 season. There was play-off agony in their first season back in the third tier last season when Stockport suffered a penalty shoot-out defeat in a play-off semi-final against Leyton Orient - but they went one better by landing a place in this season’s final with a 3-0 aggregate win against Stevenage.

However, thoughts of promotion into the Championship were ended in devastating fashion as a brace from Ruben Rodrigues, an own goal from Kyle Wooton and a Sam Dalby strike helped inflict a 4-1 defeat on Challinor’s side.

Speaking to the Hatters website after the game, the former Pools boss said: “Experience allows you to deal with these types of things better - and that’s not to say that nobody is gutted with the way today has transpired. Nobody is feeling sorry for anybody. We move on and we move on quickly. We got off to the worst possible start with the goal we conceded but I thought we reacted really well to that. We scored a goal disallowed but through VAR and get ourselves back level. But in the first-half, I was pleased with our performance and thought we were in the ascendency. In the second-half, we spoke about driving home that advantage. From minute one, we were too passive, miles too passive, and we can make excuses with the heat but we allowed too much possession and didn’t put them under pressure.”

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