COLEMAN BLASTS SMITH OVER RED CARD AND SAYS VALE FANS WERE ‘DEROGATORY’

ACCRINGTON manager John Coleman said Nathan Smith (pictured above) played a major role in striker Colby Bishop’s red card in a key moment of Port Vale’s 5-1 win in the FA Cup firstround tie at Vale Park.

And Coleman also said Vale supporters were ‘derogatory’ about his team as their side swept to victory against their ten-man opponents.

Vale are through to the second round after a hattrick from James Wilson and further goals from Lewis Cass and George Lloyd.

But Coleman felt his side were very much in the game at only 1-0 down before Bishop was red carded on 70 minutes for an off-the-ball foul.

The assistant referee alerted referee Benjamin Speedie to the incident but Coleman said he got the call wrong

The manager said: “You know Colby as well as I do.

“You would have to burn his house down to get a reaction off Colby.

“Unfortunately, Colby gets this done to him every week. It’s not fair but that’s life.

“Life sometimes isn’t fair. A lot of the time life isn’t fair for Colby because he gets battered from pillar to post every single week.

“Today, their number 6 (Smith) was possibly a little bit scared of Colby in the air and he thought the best way was to try to get a reaction from him by continually holding him.

“Colby has pushed him away, he hasn’t elbowed him, and probably the linesman will be lucky if the camera doesn’t pick it up because, if it does pick it up, he might be guilty of a poor decision.”

Coleman added: “Their fans were very derogatory about us towards the end.

“We will see if we play them next year if they are saying the same thing.

“They would be lucky to play us next year so let’s see.”