Stockport County boss rued the fact is side didn't win the important personal duels
Stockport County boss Dave Challinor admitted his side weren’t good enough as they slipped to a 3-0 League One defeat at rampant Peterborough United on Thursday night.
The defeat – a second 3-0 reverse in a row – knocked County off the top of the table, while Posh moved jumped up two places to 21st and are now just a point from the safety zone.
Posh scored early through Ben Woods and it was 2-0 at the break after Kyrell Lisbie scored. Substitute Brandon Khela netted a third goal towards the end of the contest.
Challinor stopped short of praising a Posh team winning for the fourth game in a row, preferring instead to discuss his own team’s shortcomings at the Weston Homes Stadium.
"We knew regardless of league positions we would have to go about this game in a certain way,” Challinor told the BBC. “We wanted to jump on them, while also defending well one-on-one. It sounds daft to say it as we let a goal in after five minutes, but we actually started well. We took the ball off them in dangerous areas, but we turned it back to them far too easily and far too often for the rest of the first-half.
"We didn’t do what we needed to do well enough at all. We needed to win our individual duels and tackles. There is an argument the second goal was offside, but the goals we conceded were shockingly bad.
"We had a bit of a go in the second-half. We went more direct which is not something I want to do, but when needs must you have to try something.
"We has to get the third goal, but when we didn’t manage it the game became very open and we left ourselves exposed.
"Things happened tonight that weren’t acceptable. We need to be better if we are to compete at the top end of this league.”