Accrington boss Coleman relieved to get past Colchester
Posted Sunday, November 11, 2018 by PA
John Coleman was delighted to see his side make it through to the FA Cup second round, but admitted they could have been more clinical following the 1-0 win over Colchester.
On-loan Newcastle midfielder Daniel Barlaser scored the winning goal, twisting into the area before seeing his shot deflected beyond substitute goalkeeper Dillon Barnes in the 34th minute.
However Coleman had to be thankful to his own stopper Connor Ripley who produced three good saves in the opening 20 minutes, including denying Frank Nouble when clean through.
Stanley had chances to put the game to bed in the second half but Barnes denied Jordan Clark and Ben Richards-Everton to keep the game on a knife edge.
“It was always going to be a difficult game,” said Coleman. “Colchester are flying high in League Two and they had some great chances early on.
“A lot of it was from our making though as we gave the ball away in silly areas and our keeper had to make some good saves.
“But then we got our goal and Dan has engineered his goal, he has twisted and turned to get into the area, got his shot away and then it has been deflected but thankfully for us it’s gone in.
“We then played some good stuff and we would have been good value for a bigger win as we created a few more chances.
“We do have to be more clinical in front of goal though, we are not taking the chances we are creating.
“We just hope we get a good draw in the second round now.”
Colchester boss John McGreal lost two players to injury early on – defender Tom Eastman in the second minute and then goalkeeper Rene Gilmartin in the 30th minute.
“We will assess the walking wounded on Monday but I prefer to look at it as opportunities for others than injuries,” said McGreal.
“In the first part of the game we had some great chances and we did not take our opportunities. You have got to take them.
“We lost a few players, our centre half and our goalkeeper, and we had to adjust and that took the momentum away from us.
“They scored and that took the wind out of us before half-time.
“In the second half we rolled our sleeves up and I didn’t see a big difference between the sides so I am proud of our performance.
“They have been flying in League One and they are a marker for us and we did well against them.”
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