TALENTED MR RIPLEY SAVES DAY
ACCRINGTON manager John Coleman hailed keeper Connor Ripley after his heroics helped Stanley record a first clean sheet of the season in a victory at Walsall.
Billy Kee’s sixth-minute penalty – after Isaiah Osbourne’s foul on Stanley skipper Seamus Conneely – extended Accrington’s unbeaten run to nine League One games as they climbed to seventh.
Kee’s strike took his season’s tally to five but Accrington needed a string of fine stops from Ripley, the pick of which came to deny Zeli Ismail in second-half stoppage time.
Coleman said: “At the end, it was a frantic finish and Connor has made a fantastic save. He was fantastic today.
“No one deserves the clean sheet more than him. I know it’s been getting him down a little bit that he’s been playing really well and we’ve conceded silly goals.
“We’ve got that clean sheet today, the elusive one, and hopefully we can get many more.
“I was far from delighted with our performance in the first half. Walsall absolutely battered us for half an hour.
“There were a lot of harsh words said at half-time and I thought we came out a different team – we could have scored three or four in the second half.
“Connor made an unbelievable save at the end but there are three other bodies getting thrown at the ball, players prepared to take it in the face and that tells you everything you need to know about our team.”
Disappointed Saddlers boss Dean Keates rued Osbourne’s challenge for the penalty, although Walsall remain sixth, a point above Accrington.
He also felt Walsall should have had a first-half spot-kick when Ismail dived over Ripley to avoid contact in the box.
Keates said: “You can’t give a team a head start and we did. We weren’t good enough after that. The keeper pulled off some decent saves for them but that’s football.
“The final product wasn’t good enough and when we did get through their keeper pulled off some decent saves.
“Should we have had a penalty? There is no contact but the intent is there and where else can Ismail go? The keeper has come out, gone to ground and gone right underneath him. “At the moment we are probably not getting too many crucial decisions. “We don’t like losing games. We got a reaction after the Doncaster defeat and we will be looking for one on Tuesday against Shrewsbury.” After the final whistle, players from both teams were involved in a melee in the tunnel but both managers played the incident down. Keates added: “It was a bit of handbags, I think.”