Frustrating end to fine run
SHELDAN KEAY
JOHN Coleman admitted he was frustrated to have seen Accrington Stanley’s long unbeaten run come to an end on Saturday.
The Reds were beaten 1-0 by Newport County, with Ryan Bird getting the only goal of the match at Rodney Parade.
It was Accrington’s first loss for 15 games, a run that stretched back to February, and Coleman wished it could have continued.
“The run had to end sometime but it’s just disappointing it’s ended the way it has,” he told the club’s official website.
“Newport are possibly the only team to do the double over us so it’s frustrating as on another day we could have won the game comfortably.”
Newport also ran out 3-1 winners over Accrington when the two teams met in the reserve fixture at the Wham Stadium earlier this season, with goals from Rhys Healey, Jazzi Barnum-Bobb and Josh Sheehan earning them the win.
While Saturday’s loss makes it unlikely that Stanley can now finish in the play-offs, Coleman insists his team will not be giving up.
“We want to try and win our last two games anyway for our own sanity,” he said.
“In November and December we had the dark times as I would call them, where a lack of goals cost us.
“We’ve only got one goal in our last three and that’s not good enough, so we need to improve that.
“Against Newport we had enough chances and could have scored four goals maybe, but their goalkeeper was inspired and we were also wasteful.
“I have to take my hat off to Newport.
“It was a great atmosphere and a good crowd and they’ve now given themselves a good chance of staying up, but even the most hardened Newport fan would have to say that we deserved something from the game.”
SHELDAN KEAY
ACCRINGTON Cricket Club ran out winners against local rivals RISHTON after an eight wicket triumph in their Lancashire League clash.
Rishton made just 118 in their innings, with 86 of those runs coming from professional Rob Nicol, who finished unbeaten after facing 107 balls. The rest of the team scored just 17 between them, with five batsmen going for ducks. Jake Clarke finished with bowling figures of 6-27.
Accrington’s innings began with Ramiz Hussain and Simon Hanson putting on 53 for the opening wicket, before Hussain fell for 27.
Hanson went on to finish unbeaten on 43, while professional Michael Erlank (16) and Kieren Grimshaw (16 not out) helped Accrington end on 111-2 and reach the reduced target of 108 after six overs were lost due to a nasty looking injury to Nicol.
ENFIELD were heavily beaten after they were defeated by 182 runs against Todmorden at Centre Vale.
Todmorden were put into bat first by Enfield, but it didn’t faze them, as they went on to finish on 324-7 after a superb innings.
Professional Kelly Smuts hit a new Lancashire League record score of 211 from just 139 balls, including 23 fours and 11 sixes.
Enfield knew it was going to be tough to chase their target of 325, but got off to a decent start after openers Lewis Wright (23) and Charlie Jackson (30), along with professional James Price (43) hit fair totals.
It all went downhill from there though, with Fergus Bailey (10) the only other batsman that reached double figures.
The final seven batsmen managed just 17 runs between them, with three wickets going for ducks, meaning Enfield were bowled all out for 142, handing Todmorden an emphatic win.
CHURCH also came up short in their match as they lost to Darwen by four wickets at Birch Hall.
Darwen won the toss and decided to field, and it proved to be a wise decision, as Church could only manage a fairly low total of 151 from their 50 overs.
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