Stockport’s squad strength delights Dave Challinor after victory over Swindon

Delighted Stockport boss Dave Challinor saluted his whole squad after a comprehensive 4-0 FA Cup win against Sky Bet League Two rivals Swindon.

The Hatters dominated throughout as they secured a sixth straight clean sheet in all competitions.

Challinor was delighted with some of the so-called fringe players who stepped in and shone in a team featuring seven changes from the last league game.

“By half-time I think that performance was probably as good it gets,” said Challinor. “We made a few changes today, and the lads who came in did really well.

“That just goes to show the strength we have in our squad, and that’s going to be something we need going forward. It gives us a chance.

“We have got massive quality in our squad, we’ve seen that particularly this last few weeks.

“It’s also about keeping that momentum going too now.

“It’s another clean sheet, so we need to try and maintain that form defensively, but we’ve got a hungry bunch here, and I know we’re going to need them all.”

Challinor added: “We’ve got a huge November coming up now.

“We’ll see what the second-round draw brings us, and if we can get through that, then we could get a big club and that brings with it all the extra exposure, the profile, and all that goes with it.”

County were in cruise control at half-time as they led 3-0 at rain-soaked Edgeley Park after Antoni Sarcevic had bagged a couple, while Akil Wright also profited following some questionable Swindon defending.

A superb long-range strike Ryan Rydel made it four for County in the second half to cap what was clearly a thoroughly miserable afternoon for Swindon boss Scott Lindsey.

His side had also been in decent nick ahead of the game and Lindsey said: “First and foremost, I feel I must apologise to our fans after that.

“It’s been a long journey for them and they’ve had to stand in the rain, and then we perform like that, so sorry to them for that.

“I don’t know whether it’s just been a bad day at the office for some or what, or maybe some of the players are starting to believe their own hype.

“Whatever it is, you can’t just turn up and run around and expect to get a result. That just wasn’t acceptable out there today.

“We didn’t run enough, we didn’t jump for second balls, and some of our defending was schoolboy-like.

“We didn’t get in their half nearly enough, in fact I can’t remember us creating a worthwhile opportunity.

“It was just really poor from us. It was a performance full of errors and wrong decision-making.

“We have to improve things for next weekend.”