Challinor: Key duo must be protected
STOCKPORT County boss Dave Challinor will do everything in his power to protect key duo Paddy Madden and Kyle Wootton.
The Hatters chief said Saturday’s 1-0 defeat at AFC Wimbledon had highlighted the importance of his first-choice attacking duo in County’s push for a place among the League Two promotion contenders.
Challinor opted for an extra man in midfield, starting Callum Camps ahead of Madden, who was named among the substitutes.
“The game highlighted quite a few things individually and collectively what we need to do better, but it also showed how important Woots and Madden are for us,” he said ahead of Tuesday evening’s trip to Crewe.
“We have eight games in 24 days and I have to manage those two because I can’t afford to lose either of them.
“If one of them is feeling it a little bit unfortunately we are going to have to look at other options and see how we can go about it, especially with Jack (Stretton) not being up to speed and Tanto (Isaac Olaofe) still a bit short.
“Those two (Wootton and Madden) are pivotal to us and it showed on Saturday.”
Challinor was expecting to complete the signing of at least one new arrival on transfer deadline day but insisted he was not concerned by the fact the result on Saturday was the third occasion in the last five games that his side had failed to score.
“We’ll always create opportunities, which we did – whether you take them or not is a different matter,” he said. “If you look back at the chances we’ve had over that period. I’m not overly concerned. I’m more concerned by the fact we haven’t won today. We have a team that will score goals and plenty of them.”
County’s best chance against the Dons came in the first half with a 32nd minute penalty after Nik Tzanev tripped Kyle Knoyle. Unfortunately, Tzanev saved Myles Hippolyte’s spot kick.
“There wasn’t an awful ot in the game, there wasn’t a lot of quality,” said Challinor. “We had the opportunity to get ourselves in front but haven’t taken that and then there were bits in the second half where we didn’t defend well enough.
“We’ve come unstuck and conceded a goal which, at first glance, is not very good from our perspective.
“Then we didn’t show enough calmness, composure, quality to go and get ourselves an equaliser.
“You have to credit them in terms of how they went about it. The pitch is in a great condition for the time of year, it’s firm and you should be able to pass it but I don’t think we did that well enough.
“Whether that’s down to technique or sloppiness, or them pressing us it put us under pressure. But the stuff we do day in, day out should be highlighted but we didn’t show that on the day. Too many didn’t want the ball in my opinion and shied away from responsibility. When you do that you leave yourself wide open to not getting a result from the game, which is what happened.”
On the penalty, Challinor added: “As soon as people go through, people stand up so I’ve no idea what happened, I can’t say whether it was a penalty or not. But our staff said that if it had been given against us, we wouldn’t be overly pleased.
“We have complained about decisions going against us. Earlier in the game there was a blatant elbow that should be a red card and that goes against us. If we have got a decision in our favour we’ve not taken it – that would have silenced the home supporters. But the series of events almost galvanised them, they felt a bit of injustice and got in the game and got behind the team.
“They managed the game well in the second half after going in front, just as hopefully as we’d have managed the game well.”