John Coleman praises his Accrington side’s character in action-packed ending

Accrington manager John Coleman praised the “courage and character” of his side as they quickly responded to falling behind in stoppage time to draw 2-2 with Charlton.

The League One clash was level at 1-1 heading into six minutes of added time, after Stanley’s Sean McConville cancelled out Scott Fraser’s first-half opener.

Charlton thought they had won it when Miles Leaburn headed home in the fourth minute of added time, but Korede Adedoyin responded two minutes later to earn the hosts a point.

“It’s weird as at 1-1 our fans might have gone home feeling hard done by as we had a lot of chances,” said Coleman.

“Then three minutes later, with the two goals, they probably went home happy with the same result. That’s the intricacies of football!

“Charlton were probably a little better in the first half but in the second half it was completely different. We created some great chances, their keeper made some great saves and we were disappointed we didn’t take the chances.

“They scored in injury time and we showed plenty of courage and character to come back and get an equaliser. That’s also testament to our fitness.

“What we have learnt today is that when you have a team on the ropes, you have got to finish them off and we didn’t do that.

“But, while you want to win your home games, we are up and running for the season.”

It was Charlton boss Ben Garner’s first game in charge and, despite the late heartbreak, he was satisfied with the outcome.

And he was delighted for 18-year-old Leaburn, who scored his first professional goal on his debut.

He said: “When you score so late, you think you have won the game so the dressing room is disappointed but, on reflection, it was a good point and I don’t think many teams will come here and win.

“It was nice for Miles to score his first professional goal, hopefully it’s the first of many. He is only 18 and it would have been good for that one to be the winner but we didn’t see it out. He should be proud of his goal though.

“As a team, it was our first competitive game together, it’s a new group and there were a lot of positive signs.

“In the first half, we should have probably been further ahead than 1-0 but Accrington came out stronger in the second half, they are direct and a big threat from set-pieces and with balls into the box.

“We stood up to a lot of it and I did think we had won but we go back with a point and build on that.”