For the first time since 1993, County are unbeaten in their opening five league games – something that manager Dave Challinor says he is pleased about, in addition to the improvements made on the pitch.
“I’m happy with where we are. Does that take away from the fact that I think we could probably have a couple more points? Yeah, we probably could. But I’d be ultra miserable if I wasn’t happy with where we currently sit.”
“In saying that, do I think that there’s been good bits from the games? Yeah, I think there’s been loads of good bits. Do I think there’s been loads of improvement? Yeah, I think there’s loads of improvement. So, positives on both sides of the coin, in that instance.”
County won 4-1 on Tuesday night against Everton U21s in the second game of their Brsitol Street Motors Trophy campaign. Several players returned from injury to make the starting eleven on the night, including the captain, Lewis Bate along with Lewis Fiorini and Callum Connolly for their first start at Edgeley Park.
The gaffer said that there were no new injuries from this match, but he now faces the difficulty of selecting his side and potentially upsetting some players. When asked how he and the staff keep the side all pulling in the same direction, Challinor said:
“I think everyone’s come here knowing what the objectives are for this season. And of course on the pitch and in terms of the league table, it looks like it’s to compete and be in and around it, hopefully for the whole of the season, but certainly for as long as possible and to push. But across the board it’s to improve. To improve individually, to improve unit wise, collectively and there are plenty of different strings of what that looks like.
“I get that from a footballer’s perspective, being picked in the starting 11 on a Saturday is why you do it, but we have to look a little deeper in terms of what that looks like and make sure that everybody’s ready. It’s shown that at the start of the season we’re going to need different people at different times and that will continue to be the case, so there will be lads disappointed over the coming weeks but they’ve got to understand that we all make decisions in individual games based on what our feelings are and what we think.”
Ahead of County’s match against Leyton Orient on Saturday, Challinor suggested that the O’s remain a threat, despite only winning one from their opening five fixtures.
“Yeah, better team that what they’ve shown so far, I think they’ve had some really tough games if you look at the games they’ve had to play. They’re difficult games and they’ve lost in the main by the odd goal. I think they’ll be disappointed in the game at Shrewsbury that they lost, but they’ve bounced back from that and as you say got their first win at Reading, so they’ll come to our place in a slightly different frame of mind.”
The manager went on to reiterate his point about constant strive for progression as well as trying to maintain results in League One.
“We’ve obviously got our own aims that we need to try and stick to and try and achieve, and winning again on Saturday will be one of them but the big thing for us is the improvement factor. If we can control our performance and be better than we were last week, then I think we give ourselves a more than equal chance of winning the game ,but I’m sure Leyton Orient come here thinking exactly the same thing.”
You can watch the manager’s full pre-match interview here, where he also discusses the importance of County’s home for along with updates on Michael Mellon, Ryan Rydel and Jay Mingi.
