All good things must come to an end and so it was on Saturday that our unbeaten start to the season ended away at Port Vale.

It did help a little that Chelsea also lost their unbeaten record this weekend to big spending Man City.

Now while the Vale cannot claim to be the biggest spenders in League Two, Micky Adams has spent a few bob and his side must be contenders for automatic promotion this season.

This brings into focus what we as Stanley fans should expect from our team this year, I have two answers to this tricky question.

My head says somewhere between eighth and 16th in the league is a realistic possibility with the amount of cash available to John Coleman and Jimmy Bell being limited at best.

My heart says that having watched the Reds this season attack everyone from Northampton to Newcastle we are a definite for one of the play-off places at the very least.

Now tonight’s game against Stockport County should help those sitting on the fence alongside me to assess our team in terms of end of season ambition.

Stockport have made a mediocre return to League Two and have also faced their fare share of off-the-field drama recently.

Of course our off-the-field drama will, I hope, be a thing of the past shortly as Ilyas Khan has promised to bankroll the club until such time as we become self sufficient.

This is a fantastic gesture and one that only 12 months ago would have seemed like a fairytale to most Stanley fans.

So with that in mind I predict an away win for the Reds tonight and the start of another long unbeaten run, well if you’re a Stanley fan fairytales can come true (sometimes).