Coley unhappy
SKY BET LEAGUE TWO EXETER CITY .................. 2 STANLEY........................... 0 SHELDAN KEAY
ACCRINGTON Stanley saw their seven-game unbeaten run come to an end after they suffered defeat at Exeter City on Saturday.
Goals from Hiram Boateng and Pierce Sweeney helped Exeter condemn Stanley to defeat at St James Park.
The Reds remain third in the League Two table after the loss, now just one place and one point above Exeter, and manager John Coleman wasn’t pleased with the performance his side put in.
“I was very disappointed with the performance but I have no complaints with the result. The better team on the day won the game,” he said.
“They were better than us in every department. I don’t necessarily subscribe to the fact that they are better than us, and the league table would say that they’re not, but they applied themselves really well in the game and were far better than us.
“We need to be better defensively as we made a host of mistakes in defence and in attack. The only surprise was that it took them that long to punish us.
“For their first goal we gave the ball away, then dealt with the first and second ball, then gifted them the ball back. We haven’t picked up the man on the edge of the box and he’s had a free shot.
“They had chances before that so I don’t think we can complain about going in behind at halftime. I was then disappointed with the penalty they got. Nobody seemed to think it was a penalty and we don’t get those decisions and other teams seem to do against us.
“The reason we got beat was not because of the referee though, it’s because of how poorly we played in a short space of time.
“I have to hope it’s just a one-off. I feel for the fans who paid a lot of money and give up a lot of time because what we served up in the first half is unacceptable, so I apologise to the fans.”
Exeter were the better team in the first half and they had numerous chances to take the lead, with Jake Taylor firing over before Liam McAlinden narrowly wide.
Boateng also missed an opportunity for the hosts, but he made amends in first half stoppage time when he scored to make it 1-0 after getting on the end of a pass from Jayden Stockley.
McAlinden missed a good chance to dobule his side’s lead on 49 minutes, but his effort was saved by Aaron Chapman.
Stanley tried their best to find an equaliser, but the majority of their attempts were wayward, with just two of their 16 shots going on target.
Exeter had a golden chance to wrap up the win late on when Stockley was pulled down in the box by Mark Hughes, resulting in the referee awarding a penalty.
Sweeney slotted the spot kick into the bottom corner to make the final score 2-0.