Accrington Stanley manager John Coleman admitted that he was delighted to secure the victory and the clean sheet in the 1-0 win over Southend United, in particularly the improvement in performance after the half-time break.
The win over Southend secured the club a second league win of the season and a first clean sheet since January, yet Coleman explained how he felt that his team didn’t play well during the first 45 minutes.
“Obviously to win the game I’m delighted, and I’m delighted with the clean sheet as well.
“I don’t think we played well in the first half, I don’t know whether it was the long trip yesterday but we were ponderous, we laboured when we had chances to break and we didn’t really hurt them.
“We had one chance and the goalkeeper has made a good save, and there were a couple of harsh words said at half-time.
“We had to improve and we did, even before the sending off I think we were the team in the ascendency, and I feel like we thoroughly deserved to go one nil up.
“We could have been more up and then you miss a couple of chances, and you start thinking this is going to come back to haunt you, but thankfully we saw it through.”
Stanley created a lot of chances during yesterday’s victory, and the Reds boss knows that his side are capable of causing problems for any team in Sky Bet League One.
“To create as many chances as we did away from home is good, but it’s not just going to stop there, it can’t stop there.
“We know that when we get it right we’re good, and we can hurt a lot of teams in our league.
“When we get it wrong we can more or less beat ourselves, which is something we need to iron out.”
Colby Bishop grabbed the only goal of the game and Coleman admitted that he was just about to take the striker off before he scored, with him having not played for two weeks after missing the game against Blackpool through injury.
“Ironically I was about to take him off 30 seconds before he scored, he hasn’t played for two weeks and I think he was still a little sensitive with his ankle.
“I never expected him to play 90 anyway today, but Ozzy’s (Offrande Zanzala) been raring to go and he’s been fantastic all week.
“He was lively, Joe Pritchard was the same, so you know we’ve got a good squad here.”
Stanley have lost just once during the month of September and Coleman sees no reason why his team can’t climb even higher in the league table.
“Our results are starting to improve, our performances have definitely improved since the start of the season.
“We’ve just got to keep going and keep believing that we can climb the table.
“We should have beat Wycombe (Wanderers) the other week and they’re second in the league, so there’s no reason why we can’t aspire to be there.”