John Coleman apologises to Accrington fans after final-day defeat

Posted Sunday, May 06, 2018 by PA

Accrington manager John Coleman apologised to the travelling fans after his side ended their League Two title-winning campaign with a 3-0 drubbing at Swindon.

Goals from Marc Richards, Keshi Anderson and Paul Mullin secured the points for Swindon in a match both finished with 10 men.

Coleman said: “I am really disappointed. I feel sorry for the fans who travelled. We started off the game really brightly and missed two good chances.

“We have won the league for a reason because we have been the best team. Sometimes we have rode our luck in games.

“And sometimes you call on your keeper to make a save. Our keeper hasn’t made a save today. He’s let one goal through his legs. That is the difference between winning and losing.

“Their keeper has made three great saves. We didn’t defend properly.

“After the first goal Swindon got their tails up and we gave them far too much of the ball. The chances we did have we squandered. We looked as though we couldn’t wait for the season to end.”

Swindon manager Phil Brown will discover next week if he will be kept on full-time but was pleased to end his temporary reign on a high.

Brown said: “It was very pleasing. The squad have only seen horrible sides to me when we’ve drawn games that we should be winning and we’ve lost games that we should be getting something from.

“I’ve just mentioned that to the players, the team I inherited was one that either won or lost, and there was nothing to the middle.

“I had to sort of attach something to the middle. The middle to me is the basics of the individuals and its took basically 10 games to get those basics over.

“All in all, it’s a great end to a disappointing season.

“I thought we were classy in preparation for the game in terms of the guard of honour, hopefully being that close to the trophy gives the players a little bit of hunger for next year with regards to getting the League Two trophy.

“It’s a magnificent achievement for anyone to win a title.”