One Stockport County player is clearly benefitting from Dave Challinor tactical tweak | OneFootball

Hatters striker Kyle Wootton has hit form at just the right time

Kyle Wootton has found his best form for Stockport County as the end of the season approaches.

The 28-year-old couldn’t have timed it much better, with the Hatters looking closer and closer to confirming a play-off place with each passing week.

Wootton is, of course, a huge factor in his own upturn, but it has coincided with Dave Challinor adjusting the way he sets up his attack.

It seems the County boss has landed on the solution to get the most out of his battling centre-forward.

Wootton in his best form of the season, at just the right time

The striker has not been without criticism from County fans this season, some feeling that while he offers a presence upfront to bring others into play, he wasn’t putting the ball in the back of the net often enough to justify being the side’s sole striker.

It’s safe to say he’s put any such fears to bed in recent weeks.

In County’s last four games, he’s notched four goals and provided an assist: his goal involvements crucial to wins against Burton Albion, Exeter City and Rotherham United.

It’s the sort of hot streak every striker dreams of, at exactly the right time with play-offs likely approaching, but Challinor can also claim some credit for the improvement.

Challinor’s tweak seems to have found the best in Wootton

For most of the season, the Stockport manager has opted to play three at the back, wing-backs on each flank and three midfielders behind a front two, including Wootton.

But against Burton, Challinor modified his approach, introducing winger Jayden Fevrier and moving to a system closer resembling a 4-2-2-2.

It was this game that Wootton picked up his first goal of the run, inside 10 minutes, latching onto a rebound from a strong Will Collar effort.

Sensing the boost in productivity, Challinor doubled down and brought Jack Diamond into the fray, on the opposite flank to Fevrier.

This bore fruit for that pair, Diamond picking up a goal and assist and Fevrier notching one of his own.

Sticking to the plan, Wootton notched two against Exeter, the first an instinctive finish to make Fevrier’s incisive attacking work pay, the second feeding off a well-drilled Tanto Olaofe pass.

Finally, against Rotherham, Wootton turned provider to provide a lay-off for Diamond, who curled an incredible effort past the goalkeeper to level the game at 1-1, before the former slotting home County’s third to seal the three points.

What has been clear, especially to Challinor given the commitment to the tweaked system, is that Wootton is benefitting much more from being surrounded by pacey, forward-thinking attacking players that he can play off, rather than relying on midfielders and wing-backs to bring into play or feed off.

There’s an ominous feeling about Stockport County as play-offs approach

Given Wrexham and Wycombe Wanderers have been the pair closer in contention for an automatic promotion spot for much of the latter half of the season, whichever side misses out is likely to be the bookies' favourite to do it through the play-offs.

However, it’s so often the case that the teams battling for an automatic spot run out of steam once that target has been missed; much more common is the team hitting form at the end of the season carries that all the way through to Wembley.

Looking at the form table for the last five games, it’s hard to argue against that side being County: only Birmingham City have claimed more points in that period.