Stockport County boss Dave Challinor gave an honest assessment of how he saw yesterday’s game, breaking down the goals from both their perspective and ours.
City led 1-0 for much of the game courtesy of Jack Moylan’s ninth goal of the season. The poke home from close range looked to be sending us 15 points clear, only for former Imp Jack Diamond to grab a leveller. Stockport then had a lot of territory as we struggled to get out, only for Tendayi Darikwa and Alfie Lloyd to restore our lead, and double it, in the space of a few short minutes at the end of the game.
Challinor, one of the most underrated managers at this level outside of Michael Skubala, gave an honest assessment of the outcome, which I quite enjoyed listening to. The full interview is here, but I’ve picked out a few choice cuts for you to enjoy with your Mother’s Day dinner on this Sunday lunchtime.
“I would probably have been stood here, even if we had drawn the game, being a little bit frustrated with what we put into it,” said Challinor, whose side dominated possession but not chances created.
“You can feel sorry for yourselves, but fundamentally if you do not do the things you need to do for 100 minutes and you do not defend properly then you are going to come unstuck.”
City bagged first, Jack Moylan pouncing on a loose ball, something Challinor was not happy with.
“For the first goal we defend the initial contact, Brad gets the first contact and it goes up in the air. What they do is keep the ball in there by not wanting to win the second contact, they make sure you cannot win it.
“Then it bounces again and once it bounces again it causes fear and anxiety because the ball is bouncing around in your penalty area and it only needs a toe poke to go in or deflect off someone, and that was the case.
“We need to be better within that. We have four zonal players who are in an area to head the ball and once they have headed it they need to pick up, because there are always going to be players spare.
“That is the risk you take. They defend exactly the same way we do in terms of their zones, so it is nothing different and lots of teams do it.”
After conceding early to a set piece, which is not unusual for visitors at the Bank, Jack Diamond got the Hatters back into the game, and at one stage the fear was they might go and win it. Challinor knew that at 1-1 we are a dangerous beast.
“Obviously, we made the change we did and, like you say, deservedly got ourselves back in the game. From a neutral perspective, it probably looked like there was only going to be one winner.
“From my perspective, and probably Lincoln supporters’ perspective, they are used to watching what they did today and they have scored goals on the break previously.”
We did get two more, both from Wickens’ balls forward. The first was not a break, rather a big ball forward that Darikwa ended up firing past Addai with a little help from Ethan Pye. Pye, and fellow Stockport defender Brad Hills, came in for some criticism from their manager.
“Listen, Brad and Ethan are two really good players and will go on to have brilliant careers and play higher than this level in my opinion, but their involvement in some of the goals is going to tarnish that a little bit. They have got to defend their moments better. That is coming from someone who thinks they will go as high as they want to go.
“There was a lack of communication. We do not deal with the first ball and then we do not do our jobs on the second balls, and that is the most important thing.
“As much as we can be critical of them not dealing with that moment, we have two players and they have one player on the edge of the box there. One player wants to get to it and that puts them back in the ascendancy.”
Even at 2-1, Stockport were hunting a way back into the game and pushed forward after Darikwa’s goal. Oddly, it is Diamond who comes in for a little criticism as we broke for the third, with a big Wickens assist for Lloyd.
“Ozzie (Ben Osborn) puts a cross in and Jack has just scored a goal from the middle of the goal and had another chance there. He is stood on the edge of the box not crashing it to try to get an equaliser, which means the keeper picks the ball up and then one boot up the pitch.
“Again we do not deal with that as a centre back. Whether the game is 2-1 and you think you need to do something to make sure we get an opportunity, one thing is certain: when it is 3-1 you cannot win the game.
“We have to deal with that moment and we do not.”
I like Challinor. He is always honest, never makes excuses and while he does not wax lyrical about the opposition, he recognises our strengths as being much more than just getting the ball into the box. Things like pinning teams in, picking up second balls and looking to transition quickly, not necessarily break, are all big parts of our game.
Because he seemed to understand it more than some managers, perhaps that is why they gave us what felt like a worrying time in the second half, more so than the likes of Blackpool, Bradford and Mansfield Town.
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