Leyton Orient manager Richie Wellens praised his team as an outstanding after they survived a penalty shooting to reach the Play-Off final of Sky Bet League One.
The Londoners prevailed 4-1 in stains kicks after an absorbent semifinal with stockport ended 3-3 together after a hard 1-1 draw at Edgeley Park on Wednesday.
Orient, who will now play Charlton or Wycombe in Wembley, is potentially just a game back to the second level for the first time since 1982.
Wellens said: “We have an absolutely exceptional leg. We had to give a little of everything.
“Our play in the first 15 minutes was very good, but there were mixed emotions because we were a little naive and stockport was better sometimes. We did not play well at the counter.
“But they didn’t defeat us around two legs and it was our 60th game. Only the teams of the Champions League play 60 games.
“I think if you come here, play additional 30 minutes from home and you have to receive penalties at the end, I think we finally deserve to get where we have.”
Orient qualified for play-offs in sixth place after a late position that saw them win their last six games of the regular season.
Wellens said: “They are not just the last six games: in the last 30 games of the regular season, no one has more points than us, apart from Birmingham. This is not a coincidence.
“This club almost leaves the business six, seven years ago. When I entered, we were 20 in League Dos.
“Now we are at an incredible level game for this football club.”
Orient led after a third -minute strike of Ollie O’Neill, but Stockport deservedly leveled through Isaac Olafe and rejected several opportunities in normal time and extra time to win the tie.
Manager Dave Challinor said: “Obviously we are disappointed. That was always going to be the case unless we achieved the final prize for us.
“I am super proud or where we arrived and what we have done.
“Probably, during the first 15 minutes, we seem a bit nervous, but we managed to spend that period.
“We had the opportunities to have our moment and stop taking them, and once the penalties are done, I would say that anything can happen because I believed in the work we have done in the last two or three weeks they gave us.
“But we have to take the positive aspects. It is a case that our season is but we will continue.”
