Beattie’s Accrington ditch easy for nasty
ACCRINGTON boss James Beattie claims a nasty streak is the reason behind his side’s unbeaten run, which was extended to four games against fellow strugglers Wycombe Wanderers.
Stanley played out a scrappy encounter with the Chairboys where just one shot on target was mustered all afternoon.
But Beattie declared himself satisfied with the point and believes his troops are becoming less generous on their travels.
“It’s a well-earned point,” said Beattie.“It’s never a classic in anybody’s book but we got stuck in and we did the nasty things well and were hard to beat and we got a point.
“Our record away from home is very good and we’ve learnt about how to deal with certain situations and it’s great for me to see and it shows me that the lads are progressing.”
Accrington did have the ball in the net in the 84th minute after Piero Mingoia converted Laurence Wilson’s low cross but the effort was ruled out for offside.
“I’d like to see the replay,” Beattie added.
“Towards the end there was only really one team that was going to score and I felt it was us.”
Accrington goalkeeper Marcus Bettinelli made the only save of the game in the 56th minute when he tipped away Reece Styche’s 25-yard shot.
Wycombe, who have now won just once in 17 matches, threatened early on when Dean Morgan tried an ambitious lob from 35 yards but that was the best they could muster.
And manager Gareth Ainsworth has urged his shot-shy players to spend some time in front of the TV.
“I thought we could have done better at setplays,” said Ainsworth.
“I’ve told the players to watch Match of the Day and to go and see how the Premier League boys do it and how they break teams down around the edge of the box.
“Looking at the league there is nine points between eighth and relegation.
“It’s crazy so it’s a very tight league and I don’t want anyone worrying too much about the table at the moment.
“I want to be beating teams like Accrington at home but that’s the first clean sheet we’ve had in a while so we’ve got to build on that and we’ve crossed one of our targets off to hit 30 points.
“Another positive was Dean Morgan coming back (from injury) and getting 90 minutes, I thought he did well (but) he tired towards the end.
“It wasn’t a must-win game, it was a like-to-win game.
“But we got a point (and) we got a clean sheet and we’ve got to build on those things.”