Stockport boss Dave Challinor saluted hat-trick hero Will Collar after his goals secured a 3-1 FA Cup second-round replay win against League One Charlton.
The managerless Addicks, who sacked Ben Garner on Monday, were poor on the night as County booked a home third-round date against fellow League Two outfit Walsall.
Charlton took the lead through an early Akil Wright own goal but Collar equalised before half-time, put his side ahead with 17 minutes remaining and completed his treble from the penalty spot.
Challinor said: āFair play to Will, he seems to be finding his goalscoring form from last season again.
āTo score a hat-trick on TV is a great achievement, and one heāll remember for the rest of his life.
āIām just glad he scored the penalty near the end, though.
āDonāt forget the game was still in the balance at 2-1 at that stage and Paddy Madden is our regular penalty taker, but he stuck it away well.
āHeāll get the plaudits now of course, but he deserves the credit as heās been great for us recently.ā
Challinor was less impressed with Charlton substitute George Dobson, who appeared to shove Macauley Southam-Hales forcefully into the pitch-side hoardings during a challenge late in the game, leading to a lengthy stoppage.
āMacauleyās a very lucky boy,ā said Challinor.
āHeās got a big egg-sized lump on the back of his neck so heās gone off to hospital.
āIf that wasnāt endangering an opponent, I donāt know what is.
āMacās probably about an inch away from suffering a fractured skull ā itās scary, especially after what we saw happen to the Bath City player (Alex Fletcher) the other week.
āHopefully heāll come away from the incident unscathed, but it wasnāt nice and it wonāt look good on the replays.ā
Anthony Hayes was in caretaker charge of Charlton and he bemoaned his sideās weakness at set-pieces.
āIt was a bit of a scrappy game for the full 90 minutes in many ways,ā he said.
āI donāt think there was much between the two teams on the night, but we know Stockport are good at what they do.
āWe lacked a bit of flow in that first half, but weād got the early goal and that should have settled us down a bit.
āIn the second half, though, we were affected by injuries and stoppages, that interrupted our rhythm.
āIn the end, though, we just didnāt defend well enough.
āWeāve ended up conceding two really disappointing goals from set-plays again, and thatās proved costly.
āI tried to change things around a bit more in the second half. We switched the formation around, but those changes didnāt really pay off at all.
āWeāve been a bit too fragile at set-plays on the night, and this is what happens.ā