Dave Challinor hails season’s best performance as Stockport see off Carlisle

Posted Wednesday, October 26, 2022 by PA

Stockport manager Dave Challinor said his side’s 2-0 victory over Carlisle was as good as any result they have had all season.

The Hatters were the better of the two sides throughout and took the lead after a ball from Paddy Madden landed perfectly for Myles Hippolyte, who rolled it into the bottom corner.

A second came after the restart, with Will Collar’s inch-perfect cross finding Kyle Wootton who headed home at the far post.

Challinor also praised his team for the energy shown, considering the tight turnaround from Saturday.

He said: “I thought our energy considering we played on Saturday was fantastic, we’ve gone back to a shape that we know.

“We matched systems so it comes down to individual battles, and if we win seven of those then you have a good chance of winning the game.

“We did the basics really well, we were functional with bits of good play in there. We’ve played in spells better and not got the right result but as an overall all-round result it’s as good as we’ve had all season.

“Their form epitomises what the league is, I don’t think there’s a great deal between most if not all of the clubs. Some clubs have picked up points undeservingly and ground out results, others haven’t done that.

“I think tonight we did that, first half especially we suffocated what are a good side. We scored the goal and perhaps should have been further in front.

“The second goal allowed us to be more positive but safe and I thought we handled what they threw at us really well.”

Carlisle manager Paul Simpson, who was returning to Edgeley Park having previously managed County, admitted his side “didn’t deserve anything” from the game.

He said: “We didn’t start the game very well, we started the game negative and there were too many times where we could’ve stepped onto things and we took a step backwards.

“For the first goal we give the ball away cheaply, we’ve locked on to Paddy Madden and instead of staying locked on and stopping him from playing the pass easily, we drop off and it’s a tidy finish.

“We had to change it because it wasn’t working, and I think tonight it showed that when we’ve got those injuries and suspensions you can tell. We looked a little bit lost tonight.

“I thought second half we had moments where we passed the ball a bit better, got some decent opportunities, but it didn’t fall for us and we weren’t able to get anything out of it – but we probably didn’t deserve anything.

“The thing that they’ve done better than us tonight, the first half they’ve pressed better than us, second half we were okay, but I think they’ve just run a bit better than us and been more clever.

“We just didn’t do enough.”