Newport were let off the hook: Coley

JACK ADCOCK

REDS boss John Coleman felt his side let Newport County off the hook having salvaged a point with a late leveller on Saturday.

Stanley drew the game 1-1 thanks to a late strike from substitute Mallik Wills, but were much the better team throughout.

“It’s definitely two points dropped,” Coleman told the club’s official website.

“There was not much in the game in the first half, it was very scrappy. They’ve come with a game plan. They go long and try to play for set pieces, mainly throw-ins. The only danger they posed was from throw ins and we dealt with them quite comfortably

“We picked up our game and pinned them back. That’s what we more than we lose.”

Coleman changed his tactics with ten minutes to go in the game, bringing on Wills and going 4-3-3, a change that clearly worked well for Stanley.

“We had to gamble, Jordan was actually playing well when he came off but we had to try and get an extra forward on. We may have let them have the extra man in midfield but we wanted to pin them back, and Mallik did well when he came on and he got the goal.

“He was a constant threat to them and that’s something that’s pleasing. When you’ve got someone you know who can make a chance and take a chance it’s pleasing.”

Defender Mark Hughes reckoned this was the kind of game Stanley were losing in previous seasons.

“Saturday was a tough game,” he said. “They came here and did a decent job on us. They packed the midfield, five at the back; they aren’t easy to play against.

“This last couple of weeks our attacking threat has been nullified a little bit, we aren’t finding the back of the net as freely as we did earlier in the season.

“But look we’re still picking up important points even when we don’t play well, this time last year I think we would have lost that game 1-0, so there’s positives to take. It’s a long season and that could pan out to be a vital point for us.”

And Hughes says the Reds are on track to achieve their ambitions.

“I’d say we’re on track,” said Hughes. “The gaffer has drilled it into us from day one that he wants promotion and if you don’t want that, you don’t need to be here.

“We worked out that two points a game will send you up, we can’t worry about anyone else, we need to just keep hitting our targets and focusing on what we can do.”