Dave Challinor remaining grounded despite yet another victory for Stockport

Posted Sunday, October 29, 2023 by PA

Stockport manager Dave Challinor is keeping his feet firmly on the ground despite his side continuing their winning run with a 2-0 home victory against 10-man Tranmere.

The table-topping Hatters broke two more club records thanks to a 10th straight Sky Bet League Two victory and an 11th in all competitions.

Despite those hugely impressive achievements, Challinor is not getting carried away.

He said: “It’s always brilliant when you break a club record of course, and we are on a great run.

“But for me it’s just about ticking another one off.

“I know from my years as a manager that you must never take anything for granted.

“We’re doing well, yes, but then there’s the expectation that goes with it.

“I’ve always drummed into my players that there must never be a sense of entitlement there, we always have to earn every single point.

“At this level it’s tough, and there’s no free hits.

“We played some great football in League Two last season and went on some great runs, but ultimately we didn’t get promotion.

“That has to remain the goal.

“Today the sending-off changed the game just after half-time.

“It helped us, but there was also a slight lack of urgency at times.

“We had to be patient and in the end we’ve thoroughly deserved the three points.”

Stockport led at the interval thanks to Isaac Olaofe’s well-taken 12th goal of the season.

The hosts wrapped up victory through Antoni Sarcevic as struck shortly after Rovers’ Harvey Saunders was sent off after being shown a second yellow card.

It was another miserable day for Rovers boss Nigel Adkins, whose side slid into the drop zone.

This was a fourth straight loss and they are still pointless on the road this season.

Adkins said: “This was always going to be a huge challenge for us, we knew that. It was an uphill challenge.

“Stockport have got plenty of big threats so we had to try and stop them playing.

“We went behind after five minutes, but to be fair, after that the lads showed real resilience and at just 1-0 down at half-time, we were in the game.

“The sending-off straight after half-time changes the whole complexion, though.

“Despite that, we still created chances, and their keeper made two great saves.

“On another day we’d have got a VAR decision too for an offside that wasn’t.

“Stockport are top, we’re down near the bottom, so you don’t always get those decisions.

“We’ve just got to stick together as a group.

“We’ve got to learn the lessons from this and now we go into the FA Cup game next week looking to bounce back.”