Time to seize our chance: Challinor
AFRUSTRATED Dave Challinor feels his side are “wasting opportunities” in the League Two promotion race.
The County boss was speaking after Crawley battled back to secure a late point in a 1-1 draw with The Hatters on Monday.
The clash in Sussex had been moved from Saturday following the televised 2-2 draw with Salford City last Thursday evening; a game in which The Hatters were two goals down at the interval before battling back to salvage a point.
Successive away draws, however, have come amid tepid first-half showings from promotion-chasing County, with Challinor clear on his side’s shortcomings.
A much-improved second-half on Monday night was also not enough to secure a much-needed three points, as Antoni Sarcevic’s header was cancelled out by a late Klaidi Lolos leveller to frustrate The Hatters again on the road.
“The second half on Monday evening, like the second half on Thursday at Salford, was a real positive – but we’re wasting opportunities and wasting our first halves of games,” said Challinor.
“It cannot keep taking myself or the coaching staff having to rally people at half-time. We are wasting forty five minutes and then missing opportunities to take points as a result.”
With County looking largely comfortable while in the lead at in-form Crawley, Challinor opted for changes from the bench as the purposeful Rico Richards was replaced by skipper Paddy Madden, before defenders Lewis Cass and Neill Byrne both entered the fray.
Those changes predated Lolos’ equaliser, which came after a sliced clearance by Ibby Touray, and Challinor defended the substitutions which some supporters felt had invited the Crawley pressure.
“The later the game went with tiring legs and them pushing forward, we thought ‘do we need to make changes, do we need to go to a back three?’” he said.
“That would leave us still then matched up in midfield and still three on two at the top end of the pitch.
“But we then had to weigh up the fact that Todd (Kane) wasn’t going to complete the game, based on him not playing a lot recently.
“That didn’t help us, I’ll be truly honest. We made a change, our second opportunity of three to do so, then a minute later he felt his quad.
“We only had one more opportunity to make a change then, and we probably made the Connor (Lemonheigh Evans) change at the same time just for some fresh legs as you think, ‘is Tanto Olaofe going to last the game’ or are we putting Tanto at risk by leaving him on?
“Ideally we’d have liked to have not had to make those changes and we can potentially make one later down the line either to try and win the game, or to sure up the three points.
“That wasn’t the case, and that forced our hand a bit.
“But it doesn’t alter the fact that, regardless of changes and what shape we play – you can have two goalkeepers on if you want – if you don’t defend a straightforward ball and don’t track a one-two, it’ll cost you. “That’s what it’s done.” Coming this Saturday is now the mammoth visit of MK Dons to Edgeley Park in a 5.15pm kick-off again televised live on Sky Sports.
The Dons themselves are hot on the heels of the automatic promotion spots, with County currently one point ahead of their upcoming visitors with two games in hand.
The promotion picture continues to look extremely congested atop League Two, with a potential defeat for The Hatters this coming weekend very damaging to those promotion aspirations.
Challinor, though, is urging his players to “embrace” the opportunity at what will be a bouncing Edgeley Park on the day.
“Saturday becomes a massive game now. It was big anyway, but it becomes more important,” he said.
“It won’t be enjoyable from the sidelines when we can’t have any direct say over what happens on the pitch, but from a players’ perspective, embrace it, go and get stuck into the challenge.
“We’ve put ourselves into a great position in the league table over the season, and some of the players in our dressing room won’t have been promoted in their careers.
“It’s there to go and grab, go and embrace that.”