Pete Wild hails ‘under-the-radar’ signing Emile Acquah

Posted Wednesday, August 16, 2023 by PA

Substitute Emile Acquah scored a late goal for Barrow to rescue a point in a 1-1 draw with Accrington and Bluebirds boss Pete Wild believes he has captured a gem.

The striker came from Maidenhead in the summer and has now scored two goals in two games for Barrow, who are unbeaten in League Two.

In a game of few chances, Stanley took the lead in the 36th minute. Tommy Leigh’s ball was headed down by Jay Rich-Baghuelou, it deflected off a Barrow player and Sean McConville was there to tap the ball over the line.

Barrow pressed in the second half and Wild’s substitutes paid off as Junior Tiensia fed the ball into fellow newcomer Acquah in the 87th minute and he fired the ball into the far corner of the net.

Wild said: “That was a proper League Two game, there wasn’t much between the teams and we were disappointed with the goal.

“Those crosses are usually bread and butter for us so it was frustrating to concede.

“We were on the front foot in the second half, we showed character and got the goal I felt we deserved.

“Emile came to us under the radar and we have been flicking between him and Proccy (Jamie Proctor) for who will start.

“People don’t know a lot about Emile but he created his own goal today and if he continues to do that I am sure people will start to know about him.

“Accrington is a tough place to come to, they are well-drilled, we knew it would be a scrap but I thought the lads did well.”

Stanley boss John Coleman, whose side have one win, one draw and one defeat now, said: “It was a strange game. I think Barrow surprised us a bit by letting us have the ball.

“We scored a bit of a fluke goal, Sean was in the right place at right time.

“We were 1-0 up and pretty comfortable at the start of the second half but you know a team who are getting beat 1-0 will change their shape, commit more men forward and then we have to be able to get our foot on ball and exploit them on the break.

“Their goal has come from us being one-on-one and it was their only shot on our goal which has gone in, but we didn’t have too many on theirs.

“Obviously with them scoring so late we are disappointed. The game was there for the taking and it eluded us. We were in big control for long periods without hurting them and that’s our problem at the moment.”