They'd waited a long time for this moment in Stockport and they weren't going to wait a second longer than necessary. With five minutes of their 2021/22 season to go hundreds of supporters ringed the edge of the Edgeley Park pitch. It was time to get the party started.
In the home team's technical area Dave Challinor looked like the calmest man inside the ground. He shared handshakes with his backroom staff, asked the fourth official if it was worth playing added time and offered a thumbs-up to the fans who had gathered behind the dugout.
When referee Matthew Dicicco signalled for his linesman to begin the sprint for the tunnel Challinor was engulfed. Eleven years of pain, of frustration and of wondering if this moment would ever come were over.
READ MORE: Inside the rebirth of Stockport County
From three sides of Edgeley Park, Stockport County fans flooded the playing surface. Blue smoke filled the air and the players who had returned the club to their rightful standing were hoisted high on shoulders.
After 11 years away the Hatters are back in the Football League. The last decade has seen some dark times at Edgeley Park, including six years in the purgatory of the National League North, but at long last this club are back where they belong.
This season turned on the appointment of Challinor, who spent two years here as a player between 2002 and 2004. He took a risk by leaving a Football League job with Hartlepool United to return to Edgeley Park.
As the celebrations died down he reflected on that decision and why this is only the start for the rebirth of Stockport County.
“There’s no real glass ceiling on what can be achieved. This is a special football club," he said.
"People will say how is it a special club, but I was at a special club previously where the supporters were everything and it’s exactly the same here.
“We’ve got scope to grow, we’ve instilled optimism and belief back in what this football club can be."
The 46-year-old will know better than most that this club is a sleeping giant, but they were ninth in the National League when he took over at the start of November.
He has done a remarkable job and in a league that has had a sprinkling of Hollywood stardust this season deserves to be the leading man. Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney's takeover of Wrexham has brought extra attention to a league that was already supremely competitive.
Wrexham have been the story for most of the country, but they aren't the victors. Disney will have to settle for a story that ends with the play-offs, and who knows what can happen when that lottery begins. They can't write their own ending this time.
Stockport have had to take a backseat in this tale but as they closed in on the title and promotion Edgeley Park rocked to chants of 'F*** you Wrexham, we're gonna win the league'.
The closest Stockport's local-boy-made-good owner Mark Stott has come to the bright lights of Los Angeles is once buying David Beckham's Bentley. Now he can set the sat-nav for the Football League.
Stott doesn't court the kind of publicity that comes so naturally to Reynolds and McElhenney, but he wore the beaming smile of a proud owner as he congratulated Challinor and County's players as they collected their medals and prepared to lift the National League trophy.
'We're on our way, we're on our way, to the Football League we're on our way' was echoing around Edgeley Park after Paddy Madden's 10th-minute goal, the nerve-settler every County fan wanted.
When Will Collar smashed in a second early in the second half the party could really start. Just as the celebrations for that goal began to subside came news that Wrexham had gone behind at Dagenham. A day that could have been despairing had gone like a dream.
The streets around Edgeley Park had thronged from lunchtime, with Sunday roasts swapped for Sunday pints, but the congregation were doing all they could to hide their nerves ahead of the club's biggest game since they dropped out of the league. They'd never been this close before.
Promotion had looked within County's grasp during a remarkable run under returning hero Challinor. He won 20 of his first 23 league games but as the finish line came into view they began to stumble.
A comprehensive defeat at Wrexham a week ago was a fourth loss in six games and Wednesday's 1-0 win against Torquay here was a night that put the 'edge' into Edgeley Park.
That meant the equation was simple on the final day, but Stockport's stuttering form and an opponent sitting fourth in the National League, with the prospect of an easier play-off route if they could climb to third only added to the tension.
What the 10,000-plus County fans inside this ground wanted was an early goal to ease their nerves and captain Madden had just the tonic. His low drive into the bottom corner from 20 yards was an exemplary finish, his 25th of the season in all competitions.
Madden dropped out of the Football League to join County and his sharp-shooting instincts were a reminder that this is a club well-placed to go again next season.
Teams graduating from this division have looked increasingly at home in League Two and the bottleneck at the top of the non-league pyramid has made this one of the hardest tiers to escape. Once you've forced your way through the task can sometimes look a little easier back in the league.
Whoever claimed the silverware in this division would have fancied their chances of a good crack at League Two. The battle between two clubs who feel they belong in the Football League has been an enthralling one, but on the final day it was County who wrote the script.
