Dave Challinor was delighted at how his table-topping Stockport adapted to their calculated game-plan during a 3-1 victory over Grimsby.
Goals from Antoni Sarcevic, Isaac Olaofe and Lewis Cass – on his Stockport debut – did the damage to keep the leaders four points clear at the top of Sky Bet League Two.
Grimsby winger Abo Eisa replied to those first-half strikes with a consolation upon the restart, but it proved too little, too late at Blundell Park.
David Artell’s strugglers have now failed to win in their last five matches.
Stockport manager Challinor said: “It was a brilliant start to the game for us to get into a winning position.
“We knew this would be a tough game as we have got three tough away games in these 14 days that won’t be season-defining, but are tough places to go.
“Coming here, we had to do what was needed and rolled our sleeves up.
“Some of the stuff we played in the first half (was pleasing), especially with David (Artell) coming in here and having a different way of playing.
“That suited what we wanted to do. We got on top of them and challenged them when the majority of their supporters weren’t agreeing with those principles.”
Sarcevic opened the scoring for Stockport in the eighth minute when he latched on to a loose pass from Harvey Cartwright before keeping his cool and slotting past the onrushing Grimsby goalkeeper.
It was 2-0 six minutes later when Olaofe finished off a sweeping breakaway move that involved Nick Powell and Connor Lemonheigh-Evans.
Cass then nodded a third into the Grimsby net in the 28th minute when the on-loan defender was picked out by a Sarcevic cross.
Eisa offered Grimsby hope shortly after the restart when he netted from point-blank range from Charles Vernam’s initial shot but, while they pushed and probed for the remainder, struggling Grimsby were unable to make further inroads.
Stockport are now eight points above fourth-placed Barrow in their ongoing bid for promotion to League One.
Grimsby manager Artell added: “We shot ourselves in the foot twice – three times probably – against a good team who are top of the league.
“You knew then it was going to be a long afternoon.
“In the second half we showed more intent, with the ball and without the ball, and scored a good goal with much more impetus in our play.
“We had more initiative and work-rate, but the game is done by then with our own carelessness and not just with the first goal.
“It was a difficult afternoon and we have got a lot to learn, but that’s the way that I want us to play and we shouldn’t change making that first mistake.”
Indonesia 0-4 Japan: Visitors stay unbeaten with rout
Japan continued their unbeaten start to World Cup qualifying with a 4-0 victory over Indonesia on Friday.
Two goals from the visitors in either half were enough to seal the three points and get them back to winning ways after a stalemate with Australia last time out.
Ragnar Oratmangoen should have put Indonesia ahead, but he hesitated one-on-one with the goalkeeper, and Japan did not look back after that. They got a bit of fortune with their first goal, Justin Hubner deflecting a cross into his own net in the 35th minute.
Takumi Minamino got their second just before the break, finishing off a pacy counter-attack by darting onto the end of Kaoru Mitoma’s cross to sweep it past Maarten Paes.
While there was not much the goalkeeper could do with that one, he was at fault for the third as he gifted the ball to Hidemasa Morita, who coolly picked out the bottom corner just after the break.
Yukinari Sugawara came off the bench to round off the scoring in the 69th minute. He raced down the right wing and instead of looking to his options, he rifled it in from a tight angle at the near post.
Japan are up to 13 points after five games, sitting top of Group C, while Indonesia are bottom, still in search of their first win.
Data Debrief: Clinically done
For a team still chasing their first win, Japan are probably not high on the list of opponents they would want to face, and Indonesia were undone by their visitors.
Hajime Moriyasu's side created 0.79 expected goals (xG) to Indonesia's 0.72, while they only had four more shots than their hosts (12 compared to eight).
Japan took their chances, and though the win margin may look harsh, they were deserving of the three points, having dominated throughout the game.
Jamaica 0-1 United States: Pepi give visitors advantage in Nations League quarter-final
Ricardo Pepi's first-half strike gave the United States a 1-0 advantage over Jamaica after the first leg of their Concacaf Nations League quarter-final.
The hosts saw a penalty saved in the first half before their frustrations were compounded late on thanks to Mason Holgate's red card.
The USA had the lead just five minutes in – having smothered a Jamaica attack at one end, the visitors caught them out with a pacy counter-attack, with Pepi sweeping it into the back of the net.
Shortly after, Shamar Nicholson was brought down by Matt Turner when he tried to take it around him, but the goalkeeper made amends, diving low to his right to deny Demarai Gray from 12 yards.
In the second half, Holgate was denied a tap-in by Yunus Musah before Turner scrambled to stop Leon Bailey's corner from nestling into the net as Jamaica searched for an equaliser.
With 86 minutes on the clock, Holgate received a second yellow card in just over 10 minutes for dragging Brandon Vazquez back, meaning he will miss the return leg in Missouri on Monday.
Data Debrief: Hitting the mark
Pepi got the all-important goal on Thursday, and is the fourth player to score 12 goals for the USA before turning 22 years old, joining Landon Donovan, Jozy Altidore and Christian Pulisic.
But it was perhaps Turner who actually had the most vital interventions; he has now saved three of the eight penalties he's faced for the USA, including two against Jamaica.
Mauricio Pochettino also could not have asked for a better result from his first competitive game in charge of the Stars and Stripes as he became just the third full-time manager to win his first competitive away match, joining Bob Bradley (2008) and Steve Sampson (1996).
Real Madrid hit Twente for seven, five-star Wolfsburg also win big
Real Madrid had six different goalscorers as they trounced Twente 7-0 in the Women's Champions League on Wednesday, while Wolfsburg beat Galatasaray 5-0.
Signe Bruun opened the scoring three minutes into the Group B encounter at the Estadio Alfredo Di Stefano, then Maria Mendez's header gave Madrid a 2-0 half-time lead.
Madrid, who had won one and lost one of their opening two games in the tournament, got a third through Naomie Feller five minutes into the second half, then Caroline Weir made it 4-0 with a brilliant free-kick.
Mendez headed home her second of the encounter shortly after the hour mark, while Oihane Hernandez and Carla Camacho got on the scoresheet late on to complete the rout.
The victory took Madrid second in the Group B standings ahead of Chelsea's trip to Celtic.
Wolfsburg were also convincing victors in Group A, getting off the mark for this season's competition as Rebecka Blomqvist scored a hat-trick in their 5-0 thrashing of Galatasaray.
The Bundesliga side – who failed to pick up a point or score a goal in their opening two matches – had a narrow 1-0 lead at half-time through Joelle Wedemeyer, before Blomqvist took centre-stage in the second period.
She tapped home after Janina Minge struck the crossbar, then added her second goal in the 77th minute and her third six minutes into stoppage time.
Vivien Endemann powered home a fifth for Wolfsburg one minute later, as they provisionally moved within three points of Lyon and Roma ahead of their meeting.
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