Stockport boss Dave Challinor was thrilled as his side made it five wins in a row in Sky Bet League One – but believed they were fortunate to collect all three points after a 2-1 win over Barnsley.
Two first-half goals in the space of four minutes from Isaac Olaofe and Will Collar gave County the advantage, but Barnsley looked the more dangerous side after the break with Stockport goalkeeper Ben Hinchcliffe keeping out efforts from Adam Phillips, Davis Keillor-Dunn and Joe Russell.
Challinor was disappointed that his side were unable to press on and add a third and was relieved that Keillor-Dunn’s response came on 90 minutes, giving the Tykes little time to grab an equaliser.
“I’m delighted with the three points but am a little bit frustrated by our performance,” said the Stockport manager.
“It was a carbon copy of what we’ve seen over the last four games that have got us wins so it’s my job to pick the bits out of it on where we need to improve, especially how we went about things in the second half which frustrated me.
“We got ourselves into a winning position at 2-0 but then it’s how do we get that third goal or how do we get better control.
“We had that one little spell in the second half and then allowed a team that hadn’t laid a glove on us in the second half to come back into a game that they should have been out of and that’s where we need to improve, otherwise we’ll find ourselves on the end of a defeat in a game we should have won.
“The only positive for me in that second half was the goal that they scored came in the 90th minute rather than the 60th-something minute.”
Barnsley manager Darrell Clarke took the blame for his side’s defeat, feeling the formation he had set in the first half didn’t work.
The South Yorkshire side have picked up just one point out of a possible 15, a damaging run of form which has seen them slip away from the play-off places.
Clarke said: “I take full accountability for that defeat because in the first half we worked a diamond and had worked all week in trying to hurt them through the middle of the pitch tactically but we never got going in the first half and didn’t get control, we were miles off it.
“Second half with the change of shape, we were much better but it was a mad five minutes in the first half that cost us because they didn’t really create many chances but we never created anything in the first half either.
“I felt our training week went very well but you’ve got to execute that on a Saturday and I have to look at the reasons myself on why the players haven’t executed that. They’re obviously not adaptable enough as a group to change it as we looked a little bit lost with the ball in the first half.”
