Stockport Boss Talks Halftime Disappointment And How His Side Handled Pressure Against Lincoln

County – already guaranteed a play-off spot – went two goals down to efforts from Ben House and Erik Ring before half-time, but Jayden Fevrier and Will Collar levelled after the break, before substitute Isaac Olaofe’s dramatic winner.

Stockport await the result of second-placed Wrexham’s tea-time clash against Charlton to see if those automatic promotion hopes remain heading into the final day, but Challinor was happy with his side’s second-half turnaround at Edgeley Park.

He said: “It’s not something we can affect so it’s not something I’m going to worry about too much. We’ll hope that a result goes in our favour.

“First half, I was disappointed with the fact that we were two goals down, but when you get to this point in the season, games are going to be decided by decision-making, mistakes and moments. We’ve had good opportunities to score in the first half and not scored and conceded two horrendous goals.

“At half-time you want to try and change the dynamic and what the game looks like and to be fair, the second half is down to the players and mentality to understand when you’re not beaten.

“For them to go out and perform in the manner that they did under pressure here in a game that for some people may mean nothing but it means everything to us because we wanted to push it as long as we can and we’ve done our job.”

Lincoln boss Michael Skubala congratulated Stockport on their campaign and felt the Imps learnt much from the loss for the future ahead.

He said: “Congratulations to Stockport on their season. I think they’ve done a great job.

“I thought first half we looked good. We had control, we had a bit of threat in behind, we scored two good goals. We wanted to come here and have a real go and I thought that’s what you saw in the first half.

“I think we conceded too early in the second half and I think if that’s another 20 minutes, I think it could feel very, very different. Then what you saw is some pace and power coming off the bench with Olaofe and Fevrier and they caused us problems after that.

“When they get the second it’s tails up, but even at the end Jack Moylan hits the post, we were a whisker away from a point. We’re all frustrated because we want to win, but we’ve learnt loads today. We learnt loads about how we need to be, what we need to be.”