Fingers pointed at comeback king Kee
JOHN Coleman declared his Accrington side contenders for the League Two title after their controversial come-from-behind win over Port Vale.
First-half goals from striker Tom Pope and midfielder Michael Tonge had given the Valiants a great platform to shock their high-flying hosts at the Wham Stadium but Stanley hit back, with Sean McConville hitting a brace.
Those two goals came either side of a bundled effort from Billy Kee but the visitors’ protests that the striker had helped the ball over the line with his arm were waved away by referee Ross Joyce.
“There could be some controversy with our second goal, but you need a bit of luck sometimes.
“It was a difficult game for the referee because there was a lot of time-wasting from Port Vale. It started after they scored their goal after three minutes.
“But I was really pleased with how we responded and kept looking for a win. We showed a lot of character. We are contenders in this division.”
Naturally Aspin was less than impressed with the decision not to rule out Kee’s equaliser.
He said: “It’s another decision which has gone against us, which doesn’t help.
“We were fortunate to be 2-0 up at half-time and I knew it was going to be a difficult half.
“But we were unfortunate with the second goal. It deserved to be chalked off. It was a big point in the game.”
Just three minutes in, Pope met a David Worrall delivery and squeezed a header under goalie Aaron Chapman and after Stanley’s Ben Richards Everton had headed wide Vale went 2-0 up through veteran midfielder Tonge, who drove home a low freekick from the edge of the area.
But seven minutes after the break, Kee held the ball up before teeing up McConville to fire into the bottom corner and then, shortly after, striker Kee controversially guided the ball into the net from Kayden Jackson’s smash across goal.
McConville and Kee linked up again in the 72nd minute to complete the turnaround, the former racing onto the latter’s pass to blast a shot past Ryan Boot after good work from Callum Johnson.
Aspin accused his team of folding.
“Our defending in the second half wasn’t good enough and we got punished. We crumbled,” said the Vale manager.
“We’re in a relegation fight and we need to show more fight than we did in the second half.”