Coley’s men fail to build on fine start

CALUM JOHNSON

STANLEY boss John Coleman rued his team’s missed chances as The Reds slumped to a 2-1 defeat against Tranmere Rovers at the Wham Stadium last Saturday.

Accrington and Tranmere shared just four shots on target in the match, but it was the Merseyside club that claimed the three points, scoring in both halves on their way to a narrow away victory.

Stanley started well, however, and carved their opponents open five times in as many minutes before falling behind to a header from James Vaughan against the run of play.

And Accrington manager John Coleman was encouraged by the attacking intensity with which his side started the game.

He said: “We started off unbelievably well. Some of the football we played in the first 15 minutes was breathtaking. I’ve never seen so many good passes, so many good interchanges. We made three chances in the first three minutes and could have scored after 40 seconds.”

Despite The Accies’ strong start, they struggled to impose themselves on the game after Tranmere took the lead.

Coleman added: “We squandered a couple of good opportunities and then we sort of lost our way a bit in the first half and it got very scrappy.

“They’re fighting for their lives, they’re going to time-waste. Every team who’s winning, us included, will do the same, so I’ve got no problem with that.

“And then it’s always going to be challenge, it’s going to be gritty and we’re disappointed with conceding from another set play – a corner.

“We’ve huffed and puffed, we’ve had a couple of great chances, Joe Pritchard missed one, and a couple of times we’ve just been wayward with our shooting.”

Stanley eventually found the net when Tranmere’s Alex Woodyard headed past his own goalkeeper with eight minutes remaining.

But Coleman was left wondering how

The Accies had failed to take advantage of their early dominance after Dion Charles twice went close in the opening minutes of the game. What we have to do is focus on what went wrong in front of goal – how you can start the game as well as we did, and not go on to win the game,” Coleman said.

“We’d beat any team in League One if we could play like that for 90 minutes. We did for the first fifteen minutes but then I think we got disarmed by not scoring.”