ALL-ACTION Mick Flynn skipped past the milkman and stumbled in through his front door at 4.15am last Thursday.

An hour and a half later, a taxi whisked the bleary-eyed footballer off to Granada Studios in Manchester for an early morning GMTV interview.

The first of many that day as Flynn savoured the euphoria of the previous 24 hours. The Stockport skipper was voted Sky man-of-the match and landed enough plaudits at Southampton to keep him going for the rest of his career.

Now, against all the odds, Stockport are looking forward to the biggest night in their 114-year history after the Second Division side fired themselves to the verge of their first major Wembley cup final.

The Cheshire underdogs, put together for £400,000, face Bryan Robson's multi-million pound Middlesbrough in a two-legged semi-final - with three Premiership scalps in the bag already. "The feeling that I had at the final whistle was the greatest moment of my career," said Flynn who leads County into battle at Turf Moor in tonight's second round Auto Windscreens Shield tie.

"To come back from a goal down was a remarkable achievement. It was a very proud night to be involved with Stockport.

"There's a belief in the dressing room at the moment that we can go out and beat anyone.

"The semis are going to be big, big games. It's our final really. But the confidence is so high at the moment, who knows? We don't fear anyone."

Flynn is no stranger to Burnley versus Stockport encounters. He played in the 1994 Play-Off final at Wembley when Burnley clinched promotion back to the First Division - at County's expense. Now Flynn says his Edgeley Park side are determined to bury the memory of the 5-2 humbling at Turf Moor in October.

In a extraordinary goal-scoring feat, Clarets striker Paul Barnes netted all five goals.

"We are not frightened of Burnley and we know we can get a result up there," rapped Flynn. "We have a definite score to settle with Burnley.

"We talked about the game yesterday and all the lads reckon that scoreline was a bit of a fluke, a definite one-off. I don't think that will happen again.

"Although Crewe or Bury are closer to Stockport, we class Burnley as our REAL derby. It's the one that our fans look forward to and we want to give them something to shout about tonight. "There was talk about the gaffer resting a few players but that will not happen at Burnley. We would not send our reserve team up to Burnley. From the point of view of all the players, this is a genuine big game for us."

But the physical and mental demands of the past week appeared to have caught up with County at the weekend, with Second Division leaders Brentford winning 2-1 at Edgeley Park.

But that was Stockport's first league defeat since November and only their fourth defeat in 32 league and cup games. "We've got to Wembley in this competition before. It would be a dream come true if we could do it in both competitions (AWS and Coca-Cola).

"We are a hard side to play against and we're really up for the cup at Burnley tonight."

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