Coleman wants Accrington to keep their feet on ground after win over Port Vale

Posted Sunday, January 21, 2018 by PA

Accrington boss John Coleman says his side must not get carried away after coming back from 2-0 down to clinch a 3-2 victory against Port Vale.

It was Stanley’s fourth successive win and keeps them in third spot as they look to clinch automatic promotion this season.

Port Vale opened the scoring in the third minute when Tom Pope headed home his 15th goal of the campaign.

Vale doubled their lead on 41 minutes when Michael Tonge’s free-kick was deflected into the net.

Stanley got a goal back on 51 minutes when Sean McConville fired home and three minutes later the home side scored a controversial equaliser, with Billy Kee appearing to handle the ball over the line for his sixth goal in six games.

McConville scored a 72nd-minute winner with his ninth goal of the campaign.

“We went through a bad run in early December and at 2-0 down, during this run, we would have probably buckled and lost this game,” said Coleman.

“We had the lion’s share of play and if you do that you should win and we did today but we can’t get carried away. There is a long way to go and Port Vale will be aggrieved they have gone away with nothing after being 2-0 up.

“We have got to keep our feet on the ground and we gifted them the first goal while we felt it wasn’t a free-kick for the second one. But individual errors can be costly and we have got to try and eradicate these.

“There is a lot of hard work ahead but the lads have a belief, we had five losses on the bounce and we could have slid down the table but we have come back and now we have got to realise how important every win is between now and the end of the season.”

Port Vale manager Neil Aspin was furious at Stanley’s second goal.

He said: “When everybody appeals, I always gauge a decision by the players’ reaction on the pitch and they all appealed. I have watched the video and it was handball.

“It’s another decision which has gone against us but I don’t want to make excuses as we defended poorly in a 10 minute spell in the second half and we were punished.

“We were 2-0 up at half-time but we were fortunate as they had a couple of chances. We had said at half-time we have to keep it tight after the break and we didn’t do that, we weren’t doing our jobs.

“We are in a relegation fight and we have got to show more fight. We are not consistent enough but I believe I have the players here who can turn it around, they have shown it previously.”