John Coleman hails maturity in squad as Accrington earn Doncaster point

Posted Sunday, December 22, 2019 by PA

Accrington boss John Coleman hailed the growing maturity in his side as they fought back for a share of the spoils with a 1-1 Sky Bet League One draw at Doncaster.

Substitute Offrande Zanzala struck an 82nd-minute equaliser to stretch Accrington’s unbeaten run to five matches in all competitions.

Doncaster had led through Jon Taylor’s strike early in the second half and Coleman felt his side would have lost the game just a few weeks ago.

“We worked really, really hard,” he said. “We pressed them.

“They’ve scored on the counter because we were camping out on the edge of their box. That was a body blow.

“But we’ve matured over the last month because we might have gone under. They put us under a bit of pressure but we stood firm.

“We deservedly got the equaliser and I think if anyone was going to win it, it was going to be us. Their keeper has produced a world-class save from Seamus (Conneely).”

Coleman felt his side should have had a penalty in the first half when Jordan Clark was tripped in the box.

“We’ve had our customary penalty turned down again,” he said. “I don’t know what we’ve got to do to get penalties anymore. People just seem to be able to trip our players up in the box and not give away a penalty.

“It defies belief. I think everyone in the ground thought it was a penalty part from the referee and the linesman.”

Doncaster boss Darren Moore felt Accrington’s equaliser should have been chalked out for offside against scorer Zanzala.

But he said Rovers must take the blow and push forward as they look to get back to winning ways.

“You’re always disappointed to concede a goal from a set play but the boy is offside when he makes the initial contact,” Moore said.

“I think the linesman sees Cameron John but he doesn’t see the boy. If you look to the letter of the law, it’s an offside but he gets the goal.

“We’re disappointed with that but we have to take it on the chin and move on.

“We led the game with a good goal through Jon Taylor, who we thought would be a match winner today with his energy and drive.

“The game plan was to try to get Tayls in behind them, which he was doing and then to see him score a good goal was great because we worked on that in training.

“We haven’t won the game but we made sure we didn’t lose it, which is something we can build on.

“Defining moments have not gone for us in games recently. You could say we’ve not had the rub of the green recently.”