More to come from Accrington, says boss John Coleman

Posted Sunday, September 05, 2021 by PA

John Coleman insists there is more to come from his Accrington side after they went second in League One with a 1-0 win over Shrewsbury.

On-loan Burnley striker Joel Mombongo scored his first league goal on his first EFL start, firing home from close range after Colby Bishop’s header was pushed out by Marko Marosi after 15 minutes.

Marosi pulled off a number of good saves to deny Sean McConville when he was clean through as well as Harry Pell and Ethan Hamilton.

Coleman said: “It’s too early to get carried away with where we are in the league, but we are happy with our points return in the first six games.

“We started off well, scored a well-worked goal and I am delighted for Joel to get off the mark as he had been frustrated missing chances and that will do him the world of good.

“After that we idled and they dominated 20 minutes of the first half. There were a few harsh words said at half-time and thankfully we responded.

“I know we will get better. Ethan Hamilton came on and showed a different dynamic, Jovan Malcolm got his first taste of this type of football and Joel got his goal.

“Colby Bishop looks like the top player he is and that’s why clubs will be queuing up for him in January.

“We have our skipper Seamus Conneely coming back, Joe Pritchard is arguably one of the most exciting players in League One and John O’Sullivan who will give his all.

“In three or four weeks, we could have a really strong squad with a lot of young kids chomping at the bit to come and help us.”

Shrewsbury boss Steve Cotterill was left frustrated by the defeat.

His side have scored only two goals in their six league games so far this season, losing five of those.

The closest they came was a Tom Bloxham volley which Toby Savin superbly pushed away.

“After they scored the goal, I thought we were the better team certainly in the last 15-20 minutes of the first half and I thought we were the better team in the second half,” he said.

“If their keeper doesn’t make a save from Tom, and we get that goal back early, then I think we could have gone on and won the game with our performance in the second half, we did everything but score.

“We can’t do anything magical to make the chances go in, we have just got to make sure we keep creating those chances and when they come on a regular basis we are in there and take them.

“They won’t have many teams come here and take the game to them like we did in the second half.”