Six years ago Stockport County were playing in the National League North.

They gained promotion to the National League in May 2019 and were purchased the following year by local businessman Mark Stott. He appointed former player Dave Challinor as manager in November 2021 and six months later they won promotion back to the EFL after an eleven year absence.

They missed out on immediate promotion to League One when they lost the play-off final on penalties to Carlisle but last season they were crowned champions with two games to spare. There has been no subsequent let-up; they were top of League One after winning their first three games of this season and they have been in the play-off places since beating Bolton 5-0 in early November. That result was particularly impressive given that they had lost their previous match 0-5 at home to Wycombe.

Much of their success had been built on the impact of Aston Villa loanee Louie Barry who scored 15 goals in 23 league games, including a penalty at The Valley in September. Many felt they would falter once he was recalled by Villa in January but, since surprisingly losing at home to Mansfield on January 4th, they have won seven and drawn two of their ten games and are now positioned six points behind second place Wycombe. Their only defeat was 0-2 at Cambridge two weeks ago.

Travelling fans will be denied the chance to marvel at the skills of Lewis Fiorini as Stockport have loaned him out to Dundee United but County have a new star in 19 year old Benoný Breki Andrésson, signed from KR Reykjavik in January. Last season he  broke Icelandic scoring records with 21 goals in 26 appearances.  Director of Football Simon Wilson described Andrésson as "what we call an emerging talent signing; someone who we believe has high potential for the future but requires a development plan and huge effort from all parties to get him to where we think he can be."  He hasn't started a game yet but has scored three goals already in less than 90 minutes playing time as a substitute. The home crowd will no doubt be baying for his introduction if things aren't going their way on Saturday.

Charlton's last visit to Edgeley Park was in December 2022 when, under caretaker manager Anthony Hayes, they were knocked out of the FA Cup 3-1. After some time as assistant manager at Gillingham, Hayes has this week been appointed under 21 coach at Crystal Palace. Current manager Nathan Jones is very pleased with the momentum his squad have built up: "As you would imagine, the squad is in good shape and there's real good competition. We've had a real good training session today, so everyone's in a good place."

Asked about Tyreece Campbell he confirmed: "it's stuff that we monitor but he's fine. It wasn't an injury as such - it was more fatigue and cramping, and that can lead to injury if you're not careful."

Nathan and Dave Challinor have both been nominated as Manager of the Month for February alongside Chris Davies of Birmingham and Steven Schumacher of Bolton. The result will be known by the time the teams kick off at 12.30 on Saturday. The 1200 Charlton fans travelling north despite the early kick off won't care if Nathan doesn't win the award as long as his team continue to produce the goods on the pitch.

Also, in case you weren't aware, we understand that Stockport railway viaduct is the single biggest brick-built structure in the world.