John Coleman unhappy with decisions going against Accrington

Posted Sunday, February 02, 2020 by PA

Accrington boss John Coleman hit out at the amount of decisions going against his side after the 2-1 win over AFC Wimbledon.

Ten-man Stanley secured a vital victory that moved them 11 points clear of third-bottom Tranmere.

They opened up a 2-0 lead at the break courtesy of goals from Jordan Clark and Dion Charles but suffered a blow when Joe Pritchard was handed a second yellow card after the break for an apparent dive.

And that left Coleman seething at yet another poor decision.

“Everyone is talking about the sending-off,” said Coleman. “I didn’t enjoy the game after that sending-off, not one bit.

“If this was an isolated incident, I could understand. But I’m on the phone to Mike Jones (Referees Association) every Monday morning.

“In the last six games we’ve had eight major decisions go against us. We can’t be that unlucky, it’s physically impossible to be that unlucky.”

Stanley opened the scoring after 13 minutes when Clark side-footed home from inside the box after Pritchard’s centre.

They doubled their lead in the 21st minute as Charles acrobatically volleyed home a speculative effort.

Despite their dominance, Stanley suffered a setback after 55 minutes when the lively Pritchard was sent off despite appearing to go down under a challenge in the box from a Wimbledon defender.

Referee James Oldham deemed that Pritchard had simulated and handed him a second yellow card.

The visitors halved the deficit through a Joe Pigott header in the 73rd minute but despite their man advantage they could not force an equaliser.

Coleman added: “That’s the best win of the season for the manner it was won and for how we had to dig in.

“I have watched a lot of Wimbledon and I like the way they play. It’s so, so hard when you know you’re playing well to deal with the setbacks that we’ve had.

“But I can’t praise the lads enough. They showed a lot of character today.”

Wimbledon boss Glyn Hodges, whose side are six points above the bottom three, was unhappy with the display.

He said: “I was disappointed. I was shaking my head at some of the things that were going on and some of the things that weren’t happening.

“You can blame the conditions but if we can’t pass the ball to each other then it’s not good enough. I was just frustrated because we’re miles better than that.

“We’ve missed a trick not taking something against one of our relegation rivals. It’s a missed opportunity to perform.”