Historic victory
SKY BET
LEAGUE ONE STANLEY........................... 2 IPSWICH ........................... 0
ACCRINGTON Stanley picked up one of the biggest league wins in their history after an impressive victory over Ipswich Town.
Two goals from Colby Bishop earned Stanley the three points, against an Ipswich side that had gone unbeaten in their opening 12 league matches.
Accrington boss John Coleman was extremely pleased with the win, and praised his players for giving it their all throughout the 90 minutes.
“I think we played some magnificent football, Sam Finley and Jordan Clark were like two Tasmanian devils but you couldn’t pick a hole in any of our players,” he told the club’s official website.
“I thought everyone of them gave 100%, they worked themselves into the ground, they had the bit between their teeth, even late on they wanted to go forward and try and score again.
“Over the years we’ve made this ground a fortress and hopefully we can do the same this season.
Colby Bishop has been playing well all season, by his own admission he could have had a couple more goals than what he’s got already but he’s still got a decent return.
“His work-rate and overall play was good, he let the ball loose in the first five minutes and they countered on us but after that it stuck well and he was a physical presence, he won his headers and he held the ball up.
“Now we’ve got Offrande Zanzala who can play alongside him, we’ve got Dion Charles who came on and worked his socks off, we’ve got Joe Pritchard who can play in there and we’ve got Courtney Baker-Richardson coming back, so we have now got a wealth that we’ve never perhaps had in the past.
“Every game we’re going to play is going to be tough and we’ve just got to accept that they’re going to be tough, what we’ve got to do is play to our strengths and when we get it right, you saw some of the passing we did today, it’s second to none and we’ve just got to keep working hard.
“I’ve been saying to our players for a long time now, decision making is crucial, the higher up the pyramid you go your decision making is crucial. When we get it right we look a very good side, when we get it wrong we can get punished.”
Accrington went ahead after 17 minutes when Sam Finley’s high, looping cross was met by Bishop, who headed past Ipswich goalkeeper Tomas Holy to make it 1-0.
It looked like it would remain that way at the interval, but the home side were given a golden opportunity to double their lead when they were awarded a penalty on 41 minutes.
Bishop was brought down in the box by Ipswich defender Toto Nsiala, with the Accrington striker dusting himself off and converting the spot-kick himself to make it 2-0 at the end of the first half.
Ipswich did their best to stage a comeback in the second half and they twice saw efforts cleared off the line, with Jordan Clark preventing an own goal and Sykes defending well to deny Luke Woolfenden.
There were even time for some late drama in the match, as both sides were reduced to 10 men for an off the ball incident.
Sykes was shown a red card for pushing an Ipswich player to the ground, with Armando Dobra also sent off for his part in the altercation.
Despite the controversial ending, Stanley were able to hold on for an important win, securing a clean sheet in the process and they ran out impressive 2-0 winners.