In-form Josh has Wind in his sails
JOHN COLEMAN saluted the influence of Josh Windass after his eighth league goal of the season handed Accrington Stanley a narrow victory.
The 21-year-old is the club’s top scorer this term and was in fine form once again as his calm finish in the 25th minute proved to be the winner.
He could have had a hat-trick though, with a 20th-minute free-kick sailing inches over before he curled an effort wide after the restart.
One was enough, but Coleman knows on another day it could have been a very different story.
“We had a couple of chances and were a little bit unlucky,” he said. “But we rode our luck a little bit at times and when it’s going for you you’ve got to make sure you capitalise and get the three points.
“I thought Josh was exceptional, probably our man of the match. He’s got the vision to play them in. We just wish we got another goal to make it a bit more comfortable.
“There’s a long way to go and a lot of games to play, but I’m really pleased with the squad of players we’ve got here.
“The year we won the Conference people told us we were going to blow up and we got stronger. Historically we get stronger after Christmas, so happy days.”
Stanley made first real opening on nine minutes when Sean McConville volleyed wide from a Piero Mingoia cross.
Four minutes later, Orient’s Connor Essam headed a teasing Jack Payne cross against the bar and then Jason Mooney did superbly to deny Ollie Palmer.
The hosts went close again with John Marquis’ volley tipped over and four minutes later the O’s had another great chance but Bradley Pritchard couldn’t get enough on his glancing header.
Stanley took advantage and netted immediately after, Windass played through on goal by Billy Kee and finished calmly.
After the interval it was Orient who were on top with a neat onetwo between Palmer and Jay Simpson creating an opening only for the former’s effort to trickle wide.
Orient pushed in vain for an equaliser but, much to the dismay of manager Ian Hendon, it never arrived.
“That’s just not acceptable,” he said.
“If you don’t take your chances you don’t win games and we had some good chances in that game.
“I’m not saying we played well, because we didn’t, I’m not going to disguise that fact, but we did have some good opportunities to score and we didn’t take them.
“You can only show them what they do on the training pitch, if they don’t take that on board and keep making mistakes then we’re going to have to make some changes.”