Kee man returns to grab point
JOHN Coleman described a feeling of ‘déjà vu’ on Saturday as his Accrington side came from behind to claim a point in their third 1-1 draw in as many games. A returning Billy Kee was the scorer from the spot as Stanley battled well in testing conditions at The Crown Ground.
Early chances came and went once again for the home side as they so often have in recent weeks, Kee stung the palms of Bradley Collins in the opening 5 minutes as Stanley went in search of their first home win of the campaign.
Ross Sykes, who was returning to the starting 11 in place of Michael Ihiekwe, caused real havoc in the Burton box. Almost getting his head on a McConville cross, the ball fell to Mark Hughes who 9 times out of 10 heads the ball home. Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be and the ball somehow went wide of the mark.
Stanley are also yet to register a clean sheet, and much to the home faithful’s dismay they fell behind once more on 11 minutes. Marvin Sordell saw his shot parried into a dangerous area by Ripley, Scott Fraser was quickest to react and struck the ball into the top corner from all of 8 yards. Yet again, Stanley would need to come from behind to gain anything in the match.
Burton did their best to double the lead before half-time, coming close on the 20th minute mark, David Templeton’s lofted ball eluded everyone. Jamie Allen came closest to a touch, but narrowly missed out and the ball thankfully avoided the Stanley goal.
The home side returned for the 2nd half to encounter a well drilled defensive Burton. Nigel Clough was consolidating his side’s lead and Stanley found it hard to break them down in the early stages. Coleman made changes in response, introducing Offrande Zanzala first, as well as handing two debuts to Connor Hall up front and Daniel Barlaser in the middle of the park.
Hall almost had the perfect start to life on loan at Accrington but was denied by the woodwork. Jordan Clark found Billy Kee on the edge of the box whose header took the Burton centre half out of the match. Hall, who still had much to do, brought the uncomfortable ball down well and shot low passed the Burton keeper. It looked good enough to nestle into the net but swung away at the last moment to deny the Bolton man a debut goal.
Any thought of defeat was quickly brushed away however, and with time slipping away it was a Burton mistake that gifted the Reds opportunity back into the game. Zanzala raced through on goal and was brought down by Kyle McFadzean. The referee wasted no time in pointing to the spot, Albion’s players raced around him only to have their plea’s waved away. When the dust settled a returning Billy Kee stepped up to take the spot kick in front of the Clayton End.
Kee made no mistake from 12 yards, dispatching the penalty with ease into the middle of the goal and Stanley looked to take all three points in the time that remained.
They came as close as they could to a winner in stoppage time. Zanzala, who produced his best performance in a Stanley shirt to date had the ball in the back of the net only to see the offside flag raised by the assistant referee.
Two minutes later he couldn’t believe his luck as he was thwarted at point blank range by half time substitute Harry Campbell, the Blackburn born stopper had replaced the injured Collins in net for the Brewers at the interval and the East Lancashire man killed any hopes of a late victory.
It meant that Stanley dropped to 10th.