Victory was inspired by harsh talk

JOHN Coleman admits there had to be some harsh words said to his Stanley players at half-time as he helped motivate them secure a 1-0 win at Southend United on Saturday.

Colby Bishop scored in the second half to help Accrington secure the win, while Southend had Nathan Ralph sent off with just over 15 minutes remaining.

Coleman was pleased with the win, but revealed it came after a heated team talk.

“We had one chance and the goalkeeper has made a good save, and there were a couple of harsh words said at half-time,” he told the club’s official website.

“We had to improve and we did, even before the sending off I think we were the team in the ascendancy, and I feel like we thoroughly deserved to go 1-0 up.

“We could have been more goal sup and then you miss a couple of chances, and you start thinking this is going to come back to haunt you, but thankfully we saw it through.

“To create as many chances as we did away from home is good, but it’s not just going to stop there, it can’t stop there. We know that when we get it right we’re good, and we can hurt a lot of teams in our league. When we get it wrong we can more or less beat ourselves, which is something we need to iron out.

“Ironically I was about to take Colby Bishop off 30 seconds before he scored, he hasn’t played for two weeks and I think he was still a little sensitive with his ankle.

“Offrande Zanzala has been raring to go. He was lively, Joe Pritchard was the same. We’ve got a good squad here.”