John Coleman happy after Accrington secure first home win against AFC Wimbledon
Posted Sunday, September 23, 2018 by PA
John Coleman was relieved as Accrington celebrated their first home win of the season – and he compared them to Barcelona in their 2-1 victory over AFC Wimbledon.
Billy Kee put the Reds ahead after six minutes, firing home from the edge of the area, as Stanley bossed the opening 30 minutes.
They could not increase their lead until the 60th minute when Sean McConville’s deflected effort gave them some breathing space.
However, Scott Wagstaff got one back for the Dons on 64 minutes with a solo run and goal – and it took a goal-line clearance from Mark Hughes to deny Joe Pigott a late leveller.
Stanley have moved up to ninth in the league in their first season in the third tier of English football since 1960.
“I am delighted we have got our first home win,” said Coleman. “We were hanging on at the end, which is frustrating, but all credit to Wimbledon as they came back at us.
“We were 1-0 up on six minutes and we seized the initiative and it wouldn’t have flattered us to go in 3-0 up at the break, we should have been out of sight but we didn’t take our chances.
“We then did storm into a 2-0 lead and they will feel they scored a good goal but it was a poor goal from our point of view.
“Then, while they didn’t create many chances, there was the threat of them coming back and it was a great clearance by Hughesy at the end.
“The only thing that is frustrating is that if Barcelona were playing Accrington Stanley would we still only get 2,000 fans?
“We only got 1,700 today but some of the football we serve up is breath-taking, better than Barcelona could ever perform at this level. We were brilliant at times and we need more people to come and watch this and appreciate this.
“There were some outstanding performances, it is entertaining, and we always show passion and fight.”
Neal Ardley was frustrated as his side dropped to 19th with just two wins this season.
“We knew from the off they would get in our face, they had named an attacking line-up and we knew they would come at us and we had to be ready for that but we weren’t,” said Ardley.
“For 25 minutes, they opened us up at will, they stretched us down the wings and they won their battles all over the pitch. We were hanging on.
“We made poor decisions, gave away silly goals and they caused us problems.
“I changed the shape but we were already chasing the game and had given ourselves a mountain to climb.
“It was a remarkable clearance late on but we can’t go on conceding rubbish goals.”
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