Victory at Coley’s unhappy hunting ground

JOHN Coleman described Stanley’s 2-0 victory at

The Valley as a ‘terrific away performance.’

The Reds had not played for three weeks due to games being postponed due to Covid and the weather – and while the manager felt there were a few signs of rustiness among the players, there was no faulting their effort at a venue that hasn’t been the happiest of hunting grounds for the gaffer.

“It was brilliant for the players. They ran themselves into the ground having not played for three weeks,” he said.

“At times we looked a little bit rusty, people losing their men and a little sloppy in possession, but overall it was a terrific away performance.

“I’ve never had the best of luck coming here and we’ve always seemed to have been done with late goals or a bit of controversy, so it was good to get it over the line.

“The effort was fantastic and some great football played. Their manager said to us after the game that we deserved to win so that was nice to hear.”

Colby Bishop’s double handed them the three points to keep up their promotion chase but Coleman said: “We’re not getting carried away whether we’re winning or we’re losing – we know football is a very fickle game, it’s not like Sonic the Hedgehog or Fortnite, you don’t complete these games! You are always striving to get better, striving to learn, striving for your team to improve and when I stop doing that I will stop being a manager. Our players are keen to learn, they are keen to get better. There are some really terrific prospects there, some could play higher and could bring the club a club a few bob when all the dust settles at the end of the season. But we’ll just keep going and trying to win as many games as we can.”