Stockport County: Bolton Wanderers hammering hands Dave Challinor a conundrum | OneFootball

There will be decision to make for the Hatters boss following the reintroduction of two players

Dave Challinor had a big task ahead of him in needing to recover from Stockport County's difficult Tuesday night 5-0 defeat to Wycombe Wanderers, and the visit of Bolton Wanderers didn’t feel like much of a let up.

The return of two long-term absentees in Macauley Southam-Hales and Ryan Rydel allowed Challinor to revert to a system, and a personnel, that he has been more commonly associated with in his tenure at Edgeley Park.

Another big call came in switching summer signing Corey Addai for County veteran Ben Hinchliffe between the sticks, but, in truth, he had little to do on the day.

Reversing Tuesday’s scoreline in a 5-0 win against the Trotters on Saturday clearly shows something went right, but questions may emerge over the role of the specialist wingers signed by County this summer if Challinor is to revert to his original style.

Before anything else, the return of Southam-Hales and Rydel to a County starting line-up deserves its own focus.

The former hadn’t started since the start of February this year, with the latter not in a starting XI since as long ago as September 2023.

Both have battled extremely tough periods with serious injuries and worked incredibly hard to make their way back onto the pitch, a sentiment which wasn’t lost on the Edgeley Park crowd.

The pair were key parts of Challinor’s original style at County, flying up and down the wing to contribute in forward and attacking phases as required, with Rydel particularly noted for his set-piece talent.

Southam-Hales is most renowned for his direct running style, hitting teams on the counter and breezing past his opposite number at speed to look to feed the strikers – however, his performance against Bolton proved he’s got more than one dimension to his game, registering the most tackles of any player on the pitch.

Challinor is clearly easing the pair back in

The County boss had long preferred playing three central defenders and two wing-backs either side before the beginning of this season when the purchase of wingers like Jayden Fevrier and Jack Diamond saw him switch to a back four and a front three.

Challinor is not completely wedded to any one particular style or formation, but his County tenure has often been defined by the use of wing-backs.

That he’s called upon both Southam-Hales and Rydel as soon as they’re fit, in a bad week that was threatening to turn worse, is interesting. It remains to be seen whether this was Challinor move back towards his former setup, or whether it was a one-match shake-up to produce results.

What was clear is that the Hatters manager won’t rush the pair back, as they were both withdrawn just past the hour mark in a change that had all the hallmarks of a pre-planned substitution to manage minutes.

But that County scored four of their five goals with those players operating in that formation won’t be lost on the manager.

Questions may arise over the role of Stockport signings

There will be few grumbles if the manager lands on a setup that produces consistent results, as his use of wing-backs has done before, but there may be some questions over this summer’s signings.

The older Challinor style is usually accompanied at the top of the pitch with a front two, with players like Rydel and Southam-Hales charged with providing the width in attacking phases, rather than wingers.

That may, therefore, have an impact on the likes of Fevrier and Diamond, who were signed primarily as wingers, and were noted for their ability to play across a front three.

Of course, that does mean that either is capable of being deployed upfront – with the added bonus that Fevrier has experience at full-back from his time at Colchester United – but that doesn’t feel like the original intention behind their signings.

While it opens up another spot in the frontline, likely alongside Kyle Wootton, it would mean all of Tanto Olaofe, Diamond, Fevrier, Louie Barry and loanee Michael Mellon competing for one place.

Producing such a convincing win over one of the league’s stronger sides will make it difficult for Challinor to abandon the setup he went with on Saturday, but that system may create selection difficulties for some players.

It may also be that Challinor adapts the system and personnel to each opponent, depending on what is needed for that opponent.

The Bolton game was something of a return to a pre-2024/25 Challinor, and it paid dividends. It’ll be interesting to see how the County boss uses the learning from that game in upcoming challenges across the rest of the season.