Stockport County boss Jim Gannon on tactical battle in 'deserved' win against Chesterfield in FA Cup

First half goals from Richard Bennett and Alex Reid put the Hatters in control before two John Rooney penalties after the break sealed the win in the replayed tie.

With Chesterfield having got the better of County in the original game, Gannon decided to change to go with a 4-4-2 formation to allow his team to play out from the back which they struggled to do in the first encounter.

“It wasn’t just the perfect response to Saturday (defeat to Weymouth) it was also a perfect response to the (original) FA Cup tie,” Gannon said.

“We have got to learn things and when you play an opposition again you have got to find solutions to whatever problems they cause you. We presented some stuff to the lads and I thought they were brilliant in playing out those solutions.

“I’d imagine that their manager looked at it and thought (Jordan) Keane was going to play in front of a back three. The problem with playing a back three is that they play a front three which we expected and obviously tonight it was (Luke) Rawson, (Tom) Denton and (Nathan) Tyson.

“We wanted to have the plus one defensively and we wanted to have the plus one to play it out and we played out a lot in the first half.”

“I think the injury to Tyson meant that they changed shape and then it was a question of which system would out fox the other when they want to more of a 3-5-2 with (Jonathan) Smith playing in midfield.

“It was more about giving us an opportunity to play through the lines.”

Chesterfield had a great chance to level at 1-0 but David Buchanan scuffed his effort from six yards out which was Town’s best chance of the night.

Gannon added: “I think we gave the players a framework but a little bit of freedom to play more and I think they revelled in it.

“Credit to the lads because I think they deserved to be in the hat for the next round and I am really played for them.”