A Jack Nolan wonder goal wasn’t enough to give Accrington Stanley victory as Sky Bet League Two champions Stockport County chalked up an eighth successive win.

Shaun Whalley had drawn Stanley level before Nolan’s 30-yard solo strike gave the Reds hope late into the game.

However, the Hatters responded quickly and the celebrations began at Edgeley Park in the penultimate game of the season.

County started strongly and took the lead on nine minutes when a Louie Barry ball found Kyle Wootton in the area. The forward made space for himself and, through a crowd of players, fired goalwards with Radek Vitek getting a hand to the ball but being unable to stop it.

While Stockport dominated the opening 15 minutes, Stanley had a good chance on the counter attack with Nolan’s shot just inches wide of the far post.

This lifted the Reds and they levelled on 17 minutes when, after pressing around the County area, Tommy Leigh sprayed the ball to Shaun Whalley to the left of the area and he smashed the ball into the net for his eighth goal of the season.

The game became more even although Paddy Madden had a great chance to put County ahead on 30 minutes but his effort was narrowly wide.

Stockport retook the lead just before half-time when Madden got the ball on the right and played in a cross with stretching Connor Lemonheigh-Evans sending the ball past Vitek.

Dan Martin came on for the second half and Stanley enjoyed a spell of possession without testing Ben Hinchliffe until, on 59 minutes, the County keeper had to push Tommy Leigh’s long-range strike around the post.

The Hatters went straight down the other end and Manchester United loan keeper Vitek pulled off a stunning save to deny Lemonheigh-Evans a second.

It was Wootton who did get a second though on 62 minutes when substitute Myles Hippolyte ran onto a Nick Powell ball and played in a cross for Wootton to head home – his 12^th goal of the season.

John Doolan put on Joe Pritchard and Ben Woods on 69 minutes.

Nolan then made something out of nothing on 77 minutes, getting the ball just inside the Stockport half, running forward and striking it from 30 yards for his 15^th goal of the season.

However County restored their two-goal advantage two minutes later when the Reds defence lost the ball and the home side pounced with Antoni Sarcevic chipping the ball over Vitek.

At the end of the game, County were presented with the League Two trophy – a cup the Reds won in 2018.

Stanley: Vitek, O’Brien, Hills, Gubbins, Shipley, Conneely (B Woods), Coyle (Martin), Nolan (J Woods), Leigh, Whalley (Pritchard) Henderson (Lowe)

Subs: Savin, Quirk,

Yellow: Conneely, Hills, Shipley

Crowd: 10,180