In his short time as a manager, Paul Ince has already proved himself to be an accomplished escape artist. In his first job last season, he kept Macclesfield Town in Coca-Cola League Two after taking over when they were seven points adrift at the bottom of the table.

Since the former Manchester United and England midfield player arrived at Milton Keynes Dons last summer, his side have made a habit of coming from behind to win games. The pattern was repeated at Edgeley Park, where the Dons twice bounced back within a minute of going behind before eventually clinching promotion from League Two by ending Stockport County’s ten-match unbeaten run.

“The lads were awesome – to come back like we did just shows you what this team’s all about,” Ince, who has also provided his new club with the Johnstone’s Paints Trophy this season, said.

Liam Dickinson gave Stockport the lead on the half-hour with a shot under Willy Gueret, the advancing goalkeeper, for his nineteenth goal of the season. But Mark Wright immediately exploited a loss of concentration to fire an equaliser high into the net.

Adam Proudlock, who had been on the pitch as a substitute for less than a minute, restored Stockport’s advantage in the 58th minute but, from the restart, Alan Navarro pulled the Dons back again, following up after John Ruddy, the goalkeeper, had parried his first shot. A slip by Gareth Owen, the Stockport captain, then let in Keith Andrews, who chipped the ball over Ruddy to seal promotion, with the title also likely to be secured over the next two matches.

“It was a fantastic game, it had everything,” Ince said. “People say there’s no entertainment in the lower leagues but if they’d seen that game – there were tackles flying in, goals, missed chances and Jim Gannon running down the line trying to hit one of my players.”

Ince felt able to joke about the incident, but Gannon, the Stockport manager, was livid at Lloyd Dyer’s provocative celebrations on the touch-line after Andrews’s decisive goal.

The two had already had a heated exchange when the winger had been substituted a minute earlier. The move to Milton Keynes has always made the Dons unpopular and Gannon has revealed that there are several more reasons why people will want to see them perform badly in League One next season.

Having led Stockport to the verge of the automatic promotion places with a run of 48 points from their previous 20 games, he was unrepentant about confronting Dyer. “I’ve got good people at the club who play the game in the right manner and I’d rather work with this group of people, at whatever level, than work with people like that,” he said.

“Although MK Dons have got some quality players and play some good football, I think they epitomise a lot of what I don’t like about the game in England – their snide practices, using fouls as a tactic, time-wasting, gamesmanship and, most overriding, the arrogance.”

Stockport County (4-5-1): J Ruddy – S Logan (sub: S Gleeson, 70min), J Smith, G Owen, J McNulty – A Pilkington (sub: A Proudlock, 56), J Taylor, G Dicker, D Blizzard, T Rowe – L Dickinson. Substitutes not used: M Rose, C Logan, R Lowe. Milton

Keynes Dons (4-4-2): W Gueret – D Lewington, S O’Hanlon, D Swailes, J Stirling – M Wright (sub: C Regan, 90), A Navarro, K Andrews, L Dyer (sub: J Johnson, 71) – A Wilbraham, K Gallen (sub: J Hadfield, 67). Substitutes not used: J Miles, N Abbey.