WONDERS OF THE PYRAMID: You'd be a fool to bet against promotion specialist Dave Challinor as his super Stockport County side rewrite the record books in League Two

There is a long list of superlatives that could be used about Dave Challinor's Stockport County but perhaps a few statistics are the best place to start in an argument about their sheer dominance this season.

Since it was rebranded as League Two, Northampton Town hold the record for most points in one season, with 87 in 2015-16. If Stockport continue to rack up points at an average of 2.27 a game as they are doing, they will finish on 104.

If they win on Saturday, away at Newport County's Rodney Parade, they will smash Luton Town's record for a winning streak in one season in the fourth tier, which saw the Hatters take three points in 12 consecutive matches in 2001-02.

Across England's top four divisions, no team has more points than Stockport's 41 after 18 games, while County also have more goals than any league club in the country, with 39 and counting.

But perhaps the best statistic of them all to back up their promotion credentials is a look at their manager's CV. In 13 seasons of coaching, Challinor's teams have finished outside the play-off places just once - and that was not a full campaign in the job - with six promotions to his name.

He started at Colwyn Bay, a semi-professional club, and performed a holistic job that was first-team manager in title but his roles also included being the groundsman, kit-man and logistics chief. He took the Welsh outfit to the National League North in his first season.

Then Challinor stepped down two divisions to AFC Fylde, who he led to three promotions to the National League and so nearly made it a fourth but lost in the play-off final which would have seen them into the Football League. The Lancashire club also won the FA Trophy under him.

He left Fylde for Hartlepool and won them promotion back to League Two, before joining Stockport and ending 11 years of exile from the Football League with promotion. In their first season back, only a play-off final loss to Carlisle halted their back-to-back promotion charge.

It's normally early spring or Easter that we can make our safe bets that a team will romp to promotion in these competitive divisions, but Stockport are making a case that their League Two procession has already started even before Christmas trees have gone up around the nation.

So you'd be a fool to bet against Stockport winning promotion this season. 

Challinor's record is so good it is almost boring due to its repetitiveness. But pound for pound, there are not many managers in English professional football as good as the Stockport boss.

County had a good campaign last season but just missed out on the automatic promotion spots and then were far from their best in the Wembley play-off final against Carlisle. They also started this season with a bizarre record of just one win in the first six.

They haven't dropped a single point since then, with the highlight of their 12-match winning run being a 5-0 win over big-spending fellow promotion hopefuls Wrexham at Edgeley Park. They have won those games by an aggregate score of 31-8.

Isaac Olaofe is the main striking threat, scoring 11 times, but goals are spread over the team. Louie Barry, the first ever Englishman to play in Barcelona's famed La Masia academy before moving to Aston Villa, scored nine times before a serious hamstring injury.

Another big-name player missing for most of the season is Nick Powell. When he broke through at Crewe, Powell was one of the best talents ever seen at this level. It never worked out for him at Manchester United due to injuries and churn of bosses but he is still a star at this level.

In an interview with Wonders of the Pyramid ahead of last season's play-off final, Challinor outlined the secrets to his successes as a manager. 'My mindset has always been that even at a part-time level, it is about working as professionally as possible,' he said.

'Whether it's the Premier League or part-time leagues, you need to have the same standards… minimise excuses and make people accountable. We just need to look at each other after the season and know we've given it our all and have no regrets.'

It is still very early days in the season but Challinor has nurtured a culture at Edgeley Park that has a professionalism way above League Two standards. They have all the tools to make sure they have none of those excuses or regrets when the prizes are dished out in May.

THERE'S A BUZZ AROUND HACKNEY 

Alongside many EFL managers, scouts and Gareth Southgate's assistant Steve Holland, I took a watching brief for England Under 21s' match on Tuesday night at Goodison Park and was impressed by the amount of Football League talent on show.

Eleven of the squad are at EFL clubs - some only on loan - and it further underlined the importance of our pyramid. 

Some players stood out above others but I was very impressed by the midfield duo of Tyler Morton of Hull and Hayden Hackney of Middlesbrough.

Hackney had barely featured for Boro last season until Michael Carrick took over in October. 

After that, the Redcar-born midfielder started every single game as the Teesside club made a promotion charge. He has missed just one league match this term and is certainly one to watch.