John Coleman relieved as Accrington pick up much-needed win

Posted Sunday, March 07, 2021 by PA

John Coleman was relieved his promotion-chasing Accrington side got back to winning ways with a 2-1 victory over Swindon.

Stanley had not won in four games but moved back up to seventh place in Sky Bet League One while the Robins dropped to 20th.

Accrington went ahead in the 11th minute through a Dion Charles close-range header, his 15th goal of the season.

Swindon equalised after 30 minutes when Brett Pitman lobbed keeper Toby Savin.

The hosts scored what turned out to be the winner in the 44th minute when a Sean McConville corner found Colby Bishop at the far post and he headed home.

“I am pleased for the lads, they got the rewards for their efforts,” said Coleman. “They worked hard as we had a lot of lads carrying knocks.

“It was an entertaining game in difficult conditions and both teams played some good football.

“Games hinge on little moments and that spot of brilliance from Toby Savin from the free-kick kept us in the game as that would have made it 2-1 to them.

“I was pleased that both my strikers scored, I was especially happy for Colby as he hasn’t scored for a while and I know it was playing on his mind so it was good to see him on the scoresheet.

“We had chances to kill the game off but then they had a couple of chances as well.

“We just had to start winning again, we have played some good football recently but haven’t got our rewards which was a concern.

“We said in the changing rooms, we have played better and lost and we had to find a way of winning and today we did.

“We have got to the psychological barrier of 50 points and now we have to fight and scrap for everything.”

Swindon boss John Sheridan felt his side turned on a good first-half show but did not deserve anything from an “embarrassing” second half.

“I am disappointed we ended up losing the game,” said Sheridan. “It was a slow start and we went 1-0 down, a poor goal to concede, but got back into it with a good goal from Brett.

“We should have gone in 2-1 up but then it’s diabolical defending for the second goal, we have got to defend a lot better in the penalty box and instead we go in at half-time 2-1 down.

“The second half, we didn’t turn up, we didn’t do the simple things or make the right decisions and it was embarrassing. There was no quality throughout the team.

“We didn’t deserve anything from that second-half performance.”