Jimmy McNulty was not in the mood to dwell on the scoreline. A 4-3 defeat at Edgeley Park is the kind of result that flashes up as a curiosity on a results ticker, but Stockport's manager made clear on Saturday that the number which sticks in his throat is not the four Leicester scored, but the three his side did without getting anything to show for it.

"We could've and should've won," he told BBC Radio Manchester afterwards. That is not sour grapes from a manager clutching at straws; in a match that produced seven goals, the margins between the two sides were evidently slim.

A game that refused to settle

Stockport went into the fixture on the back of a notable win at Wigan, and the confidence McNulty's squad had been building in recent weeks appeared to carry into a match that neither side could close out. Seven goals in a League One fixture is rare enough that you have to treat the result with a degree of caution when drawing conclusions. Matches like this tend to hinge on moments, on a goalkeeper's positioning, a deflection, a penalty decision, rather than on the sustained balance of play.

What McNulty seemed to be arguing, fairly enough, is that the balance of play pointed one way while the scoreline pointed another. How much weight you place on that depends on your view of football justice, which, as a concept, has a way of letting everyone down eventually.

Where does this leave Stockport?

The defeat is a setback for a County side that had showed genuine momentum. McNulty's men had been building steadily, and a home loss, however narrow and however contentious it felt in the dug-out, does register as two points dropped against a direct rival in the third-tier table.

Leicester arrive at Edgeley Park in a strange kind of form themselves. Earlier in the season the headlines around them were uniformly grim, a run of poor results and an identity crisis under Russell Martin. The win at Stockport follows what had been a turbulent period, and supporters of both clubs will be watching carefully to see whether either side can string results together or whether the inconsistency that has characterised the early weeks of the season persists.

For Stockport, the fixture list offers no respite. McNulty will know that three goals scored at home ought to be enough to take something from a League One match the vast majority of the time. That it was not on this occasion is the uncomfortable truth he will be trying to correct on the training ground this week.

The manager's case

McNulty is not given to making excuses. His public comments this season have generally been measured and forward-looking, and the "could've and should've won" framing is about as pointed as he tends to get. It signals genuine frustration rather than routine post-match deflection.

Whether Stockport's performance genuinely merited more is a question that those who were inside Edgeley Park will debate for a while. What is not in doubt is that a seven-goal game between two League One clubs with genuine ambitions upward tells you something about the attacking quality both squads possess. McNulty will want that quality translated into points, and soon. The table does not grade you on expected outcomes; it grades you on the result.

Four games is four games, and the season is young enough that nothing is settled. But Stockport will feel that they left something behind on Saturday, and that feeling has a habit of sharpening a squad's focus for the week ahead.

Frequently asked

What was the score in Stockport vs Leicester?
Leicester won 4-3 at Edgeley Park in what was a seven-goal League One contest on 12 September 2026.
What did Jimmy McNulty say after the Stockport defeat to Leicester?
McNulty said Stockport 'could've and should've won', insisting his side deserved more than a 4-3 home loss despite the scoreline.
Are Stockport County in League One this season?
Yes, Stockport County are competing in League One, the third tier of English football, this season.