Dave Challinor ready for Stockport’s options to increase after Walsall win

Posted Sunday, January 14, 2024 by PA

Stockport boss Dave Challinor cannot wait to get some of his injured players back after their hard-fought 3-1 win against Walsall.

The League Two leaders opened the scoring with Akil Wright’s fine strike in first-half stoppage time. And, though they were pegged back by Douglas James-Taylor’s header moments later, they dominated the second half and won thanks to Isaac Olaofe’s goal and a penalty from Paddy Madden late on.

Having ended their brief blip of three games without a win, Challinor admits he is desperate to see the treatment room start to empty.

“You look at where we are and we’ve lost one in 18 or 19 games,” he said. “So that’s still a really good run and we are where we are and we have to make sure we stay in the top places come the end of the season.

“The big thing we have this year is the experience of last season, what that felt like, and if we look at where we are we’re in a worse position than last year because we’ve got 10 players in the treatment room and we can’t wait to get those players back. Once we get them back we feel we’re in a really strong position.

“We knew it would be tough today and I thought in the first half we were a little bit edgy, a bit safe and we didn’t create a massive amount.

“But I think in the second half, after going through the trauma of scoring then conceding within a minute just before half-time, I thought we started the second half really well.

“We got ourselves in front and that gave us the impetus to go and win the game so it’s a brilliant three points, a big three points for us.”

Walsall head coach Mat Sadler refused to be too downbeat after the loss, insisting that only fine margins proved their undoing against the league leaders.

“Goals change football matches, don’t they?” he said.

“I think we were just on the other side of a couple of key moments in the game. A lot of the time those moments decide a game and I think that was two really good teams in this division.

“There was a spell in the first 20 minutes when we were working out their formation and how to go about affecting them and once we did that we felt really comfortable. Their first goal was against the run of play, and we obviously responded quickly.

“There were times when they showed what good footballers they are. But then we fall the other side of those key moments in the game. It was a fantastic goal for their first one. Those key moments were what won the game so it’s hard to be too disappointed.

“The set-play for their second was one we should do better on, and probably something we didn’t work on was their right back (Wright) putting in a hell of a strike from 25 yards for the first.

“That’s football sometimes, though. I’ve still got belief in the guys, in the group, I thought the supporters reaction shows what they saw in us; we came out on the wrong side today so we look forward to putting that right in the next one.”