Accrington Stanley manager John Coleman admitted that he was happy with his team’s performance in the 1-1 draw away at Wycombe Wanderers, but that the penalty given against his side was a ridiculous decision by the referee.
Stanley opened the scoring in the first half through Dion Charles, before the referee decided that Seamus Conneely had committed a foul in the penalty area, allowing Nick Freeman to grab the equaliser.
“I think the words dubious and penalty go hand in hand with Accrington at the moment.
“Our captain (Conneely) has won the ball and the referee runs into one of our players and books him for trying to protect himself.
“It never ceases to amaze me but football is football.”
Coleman’s side looked dangerous going forward during the game at Adams Park, but he was disappointed that midfielder Sean McConville could only hit the woodwork from a position you would expect him to score from.
“I think we’ve had the two best chances of the second half when Sean McConville has hit the post and hit one straight at the goalkeeper.
“You wouldn’t want anybody else rather than Sean in those positions, and the first one where he’s hit the post, he scores them in his sleep so that’s the disappointing thing.”
The Reds also defended superbly and Coleman was full of praise for his goalkeeper Dimitar Evtimov, as well as his two centre-backs.
“He (Evtimov) commanded his box and apart from the penalty, he hasn’t had a save to make and that’s pleasing, that’s testament to how well we’ve defended.
“Ross (Sykes) and Mark (Hughes) were magnificent tonight, there’s been a lot of harsh words said after the weekend and the lads have responded really well.
“We’re disappointed that we didn’t hurt them as much in the second half as we did in the first half.”
Striker Colby Bishop suffered an injury during the second half, and Coleman knows that the squad have to deal with situations such as this one.
“It looks as though Colby is going to be out with an ankle injury so that’s a body blow for us, but we’ll move on with the players we’ve got.”