Dave Challinor says Stockport can take ‘an awful lot’ from draw at Salford

Posted Friday, March 15, 2024 by PA

Dave Challinor wants Stockport to show more character and resilience despite a second-half fightback earning them a 2-2 draw at Salford.

Stockport trailed 2-0 at half-time after goals from Luke Garbutt and Curtis Tilt.

But cool finishes from Ibou Touray and Isaac Olaofe in the first 20 minutes of the second half earned the Hatters a point.

Challinor said: “I think everybody has character and resilience in them and you have to try and nurture that.

“It’s something we need to be better at, and you only get better at it when you’re put in the situations of adversity and you come out the other side.

“Our lads should take an awful lot from that. I wish we were in a position where we could coach that sort of thing.

“We’ll try and work on it for certain, but performances in the second half and the turnaround of results last night will certainly help.

“I’m really proud of our second-half performance. I never questioned them, but we needed to be true to us and show resilience.

“In terms of the two goals, I hate losing but it’s the manner in which you lose. We run ourselves into the ground to get a point on a really tough pitch.”

From a Salford point of view, Karl Robinson took a lot of positives out of the first-half performance.

But as Challinor gave his thoughts on the ways his side need to improve in terms of carrying on their good work, Robinson was more critical of his team.

Ammies head coach Robinson said: “I thought we were the better team in the first half.

“I thought we allowed them to be good in the first 20 minutes of the second half with our stupidity and some of the decision-making was just extraordinary and baffling in some ways.

“When the game becomes unpredictable, we’ve got to find a better way of becoming more controlled and more predictable. But we were so open and disconnected, which is not what I expect.

“When we’re compact and together, we look a half-decent team.

“We made silly individual errors, but we will learn and we will be better.”

Robinson also looked ahead to next season, when he hopes his side can emulate Stockport’s promotion bid this term.

He added: “We’ve had some very difficult games of late against some really high-quality opposition in Mansfield, MK Dons and now Stockport. I’ll be honest with you, I don’t see it.

“I hope some of these teams are in this league next year because they’ll be a better version of us.”