Jimmy McNulty was candid enough after the final whistle. Stockport County had claimed all three points against Peterborough United in what ended as a 1-0 League One win, but the manager was not about to dress it up as a stroll. "We had to suffer," he said, and few inside Edgeley Park would have argued with him.

It is the kind of result that tells you something useful about a side, if you are minded to look. Winning when you are not at your best, grinding out a clean sheet when the opposition is pressing for an equaliser, staying organised when the game turns a little scrappy: these are habits that tend to matter more over the course of a 46-game season than any single polished performance. Stockport kept Peterborough out and took the points. That is the ledger entry that counts.

A familiar script, with a twist

McNulty had been here before in a sense. His public comments heading into the fixture acknowledged the uncertainty of facing a Peterborough side in transition, following the departure of their previous manager and the appointment of a new head coach still finding his footing. Those sorts of opponents can be dangerous precisely because they are unpredictable, playing without the accumulated anxiety that comes from a poor run of results under one regime. On the evidence of this match, Peterborough made Stockport work for it.

The single goal was enough, and the clean sheet suggests the defensive structure held. County's back line has been a relative strength this term, and keeping a Peterborough attack quiet for 90 minutes is no small thing given the attacking quality those players possess on paper.

What it means in the table

Three points from this fixture is the kind of return Stockport's promotion ambitions demand. The third tier is not short of sides capable of putting together a run, and the margin between the automatic places and the chasing pack can shift quickly over a week of midweek fixtures. Every home win against a direct rival in the upper half is worth slightly more than the arithmetic suggests, because it doubles as two points taken from a team you are racing against.

Peterborough, for their part, will look at this defeat as one to absorb and move on from. A new managerial setup rarely clicks immediately, and their supporters will know the league table at the end of September is not the league table that decides anything. Four games under a new manager is four games. The sample is small.

McNulty keeps perspective

What is worth noting is the tone McNulty struck. He did not oversell the performance. There is a version of post-match management-speak that turns every hard-won victory into a tactical masterclass, and McNulty has generally avoided that trap. Acknowledging that the team had to suffer, that the win was not comfortable, keeps standards calibrated. It tells the players that the level required is higher than what was produced, even when the result is correct.

Stockport's supporters have grown accustomed to a club with genuine upward momentum over the past few seasons, and that brings its own pressure. Expectations are not lowered simply because a game is won 1-0. If anything, they are raised. The crowd, the fixture list, the table: all of it keeps nudging the question of where this team is actually going.

On the basis of this result, they are going in the right direction, even if the journey was bumpier than anyone would have preferred. McNulty, measured as ever, knows the difference between three points and a convincing performance. Getting both at the same time is the target. For now, he will settle for the former.

Frequently asked

What was the score in Stockport vs Peterborough?
Stockport County beat Peterborough United 1-0 in the League One fixture on 26 September 2026.
What did Jimmy McNulty say after Stockport beat Peterborough?
McNulty said the team 'had to suffer' for the result, acknowledging it was a hard-fought victory rather than a comfortable performance.
Where do Stockport County stand in League One after beating Peterborough?
The win adds three points to Stockport's tally in League One. Their exact position depends on other results, but victories over fellow promotion contenders like Peterborough are key to their push up the table.