Coley planning for next season
JOHN Coleman has started planning for another season of League One football after his side extended their stay in the third tier with a rare away day win at Fleetwood Town on Saturday.
The three points secured the Reds a place in the division next season and Coleman has already set about preparations. However, he suggested stealing a march in the transfer market was tough for a club of Stanley’s size.
“It was unlikely everyone was going to win all of their games but it’s still nice to tick that box and say ‘we’re playing League One football again next season,’” said Coleman after the Reds beat Fleetwood 2-1.
“I have been making enquiries but it’s difficult, we’re like the MLS, last end of the draft. But we’ll continue to try to unearth little gems like we’ve done with Tommy Leigh this year.”
Second half goals from Sean McConville and Michael Nottingham overturned Ellis Harrison’s opener for the home side, the Reds’ winner arriving in the 94th minute. By that stage, Fleetwood were down to ten men, goalkeeper Alex Cairns having been dismissed for handling the ball outside the penalty area on 85 minutes.
Coleman was delighted with the club’s first away win since November – but had sympathy for Fleetwood, who are fighting for survival at the wrong end of the division.
“I thought we were the better team in the first half and definitely didn’t deserve to be behind at the break,” he said.
“We were comfortable, but in the second half Fleetwood took the game to us and I think they can be desperately disappointed that they haven’t got something out of the game.
“On chances created, I think a draw would probably have been a fair result, but, when it’s not your day, it’s not your day, and it certainly wasn’t for Fleetwood.
“I know it’s frustrating because we’ve been on the end of that so many times ourselves this season, so I feel for the staff, they are good people and a couple of their players have played for me as well so I feel for them.
“But if they show the spirit they showed in the second half they’ll have no problem staying up.
“There are big moments in games and two big moments didn’t work out right for them – the one where Notts (Michael Nottingham) has kicked it off the line, that would have been 2-0 and you’d like to think you’d see it out.
“And then the sending off – it was a rush of blood and I feel sorry for the keeper because he’s tried to read the situation and it’s just got a big bounce. It left him in no man’s land and then he’s damned if he does, damned if he doesn’t – if he leaves it we possibly score.
“After that, Fleetwood defended well and we couldn’t muster a shot on their goal until finally we did, a good header from Michael from a corner.”
While Coleman was happy to end the wait for a win, he admitted it wasn’t a vintage performance from his side.
“I know we can play better than that, and I know the conditions, come this end of the season with the pitch tearing up making it difficult to pass the ball, but you’ve still got to try and at times we were just too slow in possession, of the pass was just a fraction behind instead of in front of a player,” he said.
“You can see what a win means to our fans and you can see what it measn to our players – we just want to win games.
“We take no pleasure out of taking points off Fleetwood because I like to see them do well, I have some good friends here.
“But football is about winning games and we desperately needed that win, particularly away from home it’s been a real bind and it’s been like Groundhog Day – it felt like that in the first half, miss a chance, miss a chance, concede a bad goal... That probably sums up our season.
“Thankfully we showed enough character to grind our way back into it and we end up scoring from two set plays when we could have scored comfortably from open play.
“But when the dust settles, we’ve won – and we needed to win for our own sanity to be honest.
“It’s great that the players have been rewarded – I did have to threaten them with no days off at half time though, which I wasn’t looking forward to carrying through, but we’d have had to. We just needed a bit of luck.
“We’ve had loads of luck this season and it’s all be bad! On Saturday the bad luck shone on Fleetwood.”