Lacklustre Reds sunk late on
ACCRINGTON Stanley suffered their second straight league defeat after a narrow loss at Luton Town on Saturday.
Cameron McGeehan’s late strike was enough to earn Luton all three points and condemn Stanley to defeat at Kenilworth Road.
Reds boss John Coleman was frustrated with his side in the game, and insists that they need to do better.
“If you’re going to come away and counter-attack then you need to be more forceful and we also have to defend better from set plays,” he told the club’s official website.
“Our goalkeeper has had to make a few good saves and Luton may feel that they should have won by three or four goals.
“We controlled the game for long periods and in the first half it was looking like a classic away performance as we were quieting the crowd and having a lot of possession.
“We then surrendered possession to Luton and they had a good spell, and it was a similar pattern in the second half.
“They had a purple patch and scored, so on the balance of chances Luton probably deserved to win.”
Luton had the first chance of the match on eight minutes when Alex Gilliead fired at goal, but Stanley goalkeeper Elliot Parish was equal to it.
Rommy Boco then shot over the crossbar, before threatening again a few minutes later after good work from Terry Gornell.
Luton nearly took the lead just after the halfhour mark when McGeehan smashed an effort goalwards. Luckily for Stanley it hit the crossbar and bounced to safety.
Parish was then required to keep the match goalless, as he made an impressive double save towards the end of the half to keep out first Glen Rea and then Marriot.
Coleman’s men started the second half well, controlling possession and dictating a lot of the play.
Despite having a lot of the ball, Accrington were unable to create many opportunities and it was Luton who continued to look the side most like scoring.
They hit the crossbar again on 67 minutes when Alan Sheehan’s free-kick rebounded off the woodwork, with Parish then keeping out the follow-up from Isaac Vassell.
Terry Gornell tried his luck for Stanley when he had a shot from distance, resulting in a comfortable save for Christian Walton.
Parish kept up his fine form to deny a goalbound header from Scott Cuthbert, but there was nothing he could do to stop McGeehan when his strike bobbled over the goalkeeper and into the back of the net on 75 minutes.
Luton were reduced to 10 men during the closing stages. Jordan Cook was dismissed after he was shown a second yellow card following a challenge on Matty Pearson.
The Reds pushed late on as they tried to find an equaliser, and they thought they had it when an effort was cleared off the line in stoppage time.
It wasn’t to be though as they went down 1-0.
Stanley host Stevenage at the Wham Stadium on Saturday.
‘It was looking like a classic away performance as we were quieting the crowd’