Stockport boss Dave Challinor wants more improvement despite opening-day win

Stockport boss Dave Challinor called for “more improvement” despite a fine 2-0 opening day win over Cambridge.

On their return to third-tier football, goals from Louie Barry and Kyle Wootton sealed all three points for last season’s League Two champions.

It only took five minutes for the deadlock to be broken, when Barry scored a brilliant chip from 25 yards.

County held off spells of Cambridge pressure during both halves of the game, and sealed the win 15 minutes from the end when Wootton headed home from six yards following some magic footwork on the right flank by County substitute Jayden Fevrier.

County boss Challinor said: “The big positive for me is that there’s loads more improvement to be had.

“We’ve worked on lots of stuff in terms of our build, we played beyond their press and got some rewards from that. I’d like it at times to have had more control.

“I thought we were sloppy at times and gave the ball away in the middle third of the pitch, which ultimately results in you having to do more work and more running than you should do.

“I thought this was a really solid team performance. I think there’s positives all over the pitch.

“From a defensive aspect, we had to change a little bit due to the personnel we’ve got, but we’ve kept the clean sheet. So Corey (Addai) can be really happy about that, the back four can be really happy about that.

“Midfield-wise Lewis (Bate) and Campsy (Callum Camps) linked up really, really well. And on the top line, Woots (Kyle Wootton) works tirelessly for the team and got his goal.

“Will Collar was named man of the match and Louie (Barry) scored a wonder-goal. Jack (Diamond) will probably hope to have a little bit more involvement, but that will come with time with him. So, there were positives all over the pitch.”

Cambridge manager Garry Monk was aware of his team’s flaws, but still had some good things to say on what he saw.

“I thought in the first half we were probably the better team,” said Monk.

“We had them where we wanted them in terms of the press, but the direct balls were causing us a lot of problems.

“In the second half, I felt we became really patchy. We were giving the ball away cheaply and Stockport took advantage of that.

“We’re approaching this season in a totally different way to what we’ve done before with the club in terms of how we’re trying to play. So we know there’s going to be teething problems.

“So I think there was lots to like in the first half in terms of what we’re doing, apart from dealing with the direct ball.

“It’s about consistency of doing that, and we didn’t do that consistently enough with the ball in the second half.”