Breaking bad
STANLEY manager John Coleman says he would have preferred to be playing this weekend to try and get his side’s performance against Exeter out of their system. The Reds suffered a 2-0 defeat in the game last week, but don’t play this weekend after they were knocked out of the FA Cup in the first round.
Their next game comes on Tuesday when they face Lincoln City in the EFL Trophy, but Coleman isn’t happy about the extended period without a match.
“I would have liked to get back out and playing but circumstances means we don’t. You’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t,” he said. “Exeter’s manager made a bold statement last week and said in the last three or four years he hasn’t been as disappointed with a performance from his team that he got last week, and the same thing has been served up for me in that game.
“We’ve taken his place. He got a response from his players, and let’s hope that I get a response from mine.”
Coleman was frustrated with the performance against Exeter, and felt that his side were far from their best.
“I was very disappointed with the perfor- mance 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.
“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.
“I don’t think the players set out to play like that. There was a lack of cohesion and urgency, and we looked lethargic.
“Maybe it’s a culmination of a lot of games in a short space of time catching up with us, but Exeter have had the same amount of games.
“I think we missed our captain Seamus Conneely. Sean McConville is a good captain and he tries to rally the players on, but we missed the calming influence of Seamus in midfield.
“Away from home he’s the catalyst that starts so much of what we do, and we missed Jordan Clark’s energy too, but our team still should have been good enough.”
‘There was a lack of cohesion and urgency and we looked lethargic’