Dave Challinor believes Stockport can still get better after Burton win

Stockport boss Dave Challinor knows his side can still improve despite winning 3-0 at struggling Burton.

Louie Barry took his league goal tally to 13 for the season with a brace and also played a huge part in County’s opener for Lewis Bate too.

Challinor said: “I thought we were brilliant for 70 minutes, but we got a bit sloppy in the final 20 and if that is a result of making subs and the game being won then so be it.

“I think it is an area we can definitely improve in and be better and more ruthless. I did think though for that first 70 minutes we were absolutely fantastic.”

Victory for County was a third in a row in League One and pushed them up to third in the table, one point off the automatic-promotion spots.

Yet again Stockport had the star of the show in Barry and Challinor says that the 21-year-old is constantly challenged to do more.

“He gets his chances and sticks them in the corner and that is great for us,” he said.

“Some of the staff challenged him at half-time to make sure he did not just settle for one goal, and he has played a pivotal part in us winning the game today.”

Barry missed a large part of last season with injury and Challinor thinks there is more to come from him.

He added: “His fitness levels are not quite where they need to be for him to do it for longer in games. He is very explosive and dynamic and in order to be that for 90 minutes takes a long time to get to that level of fitness.”

Burton interim head coach Tom Hounsell was frustrated and disappointed with his side’s performance that saw the Brewers drop back to the foot of the table.

He said: “We ended up in our defensive shape for much of the first half and that wasn’t the plan.

“That was really disappointing, and I was also really disappointed with some of the performances out of possession. We were second to a lot of things and that wasn’t something we thought we had embedded in recent weeks.

“We changed shape second half and coped a bit better but credit to Stockport. I thought they were a good team who played some very good stuff and with some good individuals.”

Hounsell was critical of his side’s defending with Bate’s goal coming from Barry counter-attacking from a Burton corner on the half-hour mark.

“The nature of the first two goals from our perspective was really poor,” he said.

“Both the transition from our own set-piece for the first, which cannot happen, and the way they detached us for the second. We had prepped for that, but we did not cope with it the way that we should.”