Coleman hits out at ‘appalling decisions’
Stanley boss says if it wasn’t for his love of football he’d just walk away
ACCRINGTON Stanley manager John Coleman says if it wasn’t for his love of football, he would seriously think about walking away from the sport due to the continued poor deci- sions that go against his side.
Coleman’s latest frustration came on Saturday when his side suffered a 2-0 defeat to Lincoln City, in a match where Farrend Rawson was shown a red card by referee Seb Stockbridge.
That red card has since been rescinded by an FA Regulatory Commission after a successful appeal by Accrington – meaning he is now eligible for Saturday’s home match with Crawley Town.
Coleman was extremely angry with the referee’s decision to send off Rawson, and he admits he sometimes wonders why he continues to put up with it.
“The standard of refereeing this season has been nothing short of appalling.
“We’ve been on the end of around 14 major decisions that have been proven wrong,” he said.
“If football wasn’t such a passion of mine, you’d ask yourself why I keep putting myself through it. I may as well pack up.
“You can work hard all week and get the tactics right and drill the players, but then on someone’s whim it gets taken away from you. If I didn’t love it so much I’d seriously think about walking away from it.
“I don’t want to go down the road of being a moaning Minnie and hiding behind referees, but it was the crucial turning point in the game and in the end it decided the outcome – and that isn’t the first time it’s happened. “I can put a Christmas v ideo together of the howlers we’ve had against us this season, and I might do. “I could put it out there on YouTube, and let people see the horrendous decisions against us.”
The 2-0 defeat to Lincoln on Saturday came after second-half goals from Matt Green and Matt Rhead, but the match was goalless when Rawson was sent off.
“It leaves Stanley fifth in the League Two table, two points off the automatic places with a game in hand.
It made it back-to-back losses for Coleman’s men, who will now try and get back to winning ways when they welcome Crawley to the Wham Stadium this weekend.
Crawley are 17th in the table, and head into the match on the back of a disappointing 3-0 defeat at strugglers Crewe Alexandra last weekend.
JOHN Coleman is urging his Accrington Stanley side to put their recent poor run behind them and kick-on in the second half of the season.
The Reds have dropped down to fifth place in the League Two table, having won just one of their last five league matches, including a 2-0 defeat to Lincoln City at Sincil Bank last weekend.
While Coleman felt that Saturday’s defeat was largely in part due to the referee, after his controversial dismissal of defender Farrend Rawson, the Stanley boss also thinks his team have to now put that disappointment behind them and push on throughout the rest of the campaign.
“We’ve got to hope that in the second half of the season things go for us and we can maintain the promotion push,” he said.
“I was pleased with the spirit we showed against Lincoln, and if we keep
showing that then we’ll get more luck that could possibly go our way.
“We’ve had bad luck this season, and never, ever have I seen this many decisions go against us before Christmas.
“The second goal Lincoln scored disappointed me. We were down to 10 but wanted to stay in the game, and we were capable of countering them.
“It was a poor goal from our point of view, but it was good finish from their lad and I thought he took it well.
“That killed the game, though, and they didn’t show much ambition after that, so maybe possession flattened us a bit because they set off and we were able to attack them.
“The lads showed desire and on another day we may have got something out of the game.
“It was a classic away performance in the first half. Aaron Chapman made a good save for us but we didn’t hurt them enough.
“There were a lot of balls played in wide areas but we lacked that cutting edge in the first half, so we hoped the longer the game went on the longer we could threaten, but obviously that was taken away from us with the sending off.”