Hatters boss rejects Coleman's '˜two keepers' claim

Hatters boss Nathan Jones rejected claims made by Accrington manager John Coleman that his side had '˜two keepers' during their 2-0 win at the Wham Stadium last weekend.
Hatters boss Nathan JonesHatters boss Nathan Jones
Hatters boss Nathan Jones

Speaking after the game in which first half goals from James Collins and Danny Hylton’s penalty had been enough for the visitors, Coleman bafflingly suggested: ”When people are allowed to handle the ball, not once, not twice, three times, one in the box, two on the edge of the box, stopping blatant shots on goal. It sounds like you’re playing against two keepers.”

When asked what he thought of those comments this afternoon, Jones said: “I didn’t think so, the referee didn’t think so, what more do they want?

“We’ve been there, we’ve done well in recent games at Accrington and I give Accrington plenty of credit.

“I think we deserved our victories. We don’t win very often when we don’t deserve it, we lose sometimes when we deserve more, but I make sure I give the opposition credit, so maybe that might happen to us once in a while.

“I’m proud of my players, how we went about our work, and I ask my players to put their bodies on the line and they did that.

“I personally, along with the referee didn’t see anything that I would deemed a penalty, or a free kick, because there was nothing in the area actually, it was outside the area, so that wouldn’t have changed anything.

“We can query every decision that any referee makes, not a problem. In the league that we’re in, everything’s an argument, because with the directness of certain things, it’s ‘he pushed him, no he pushed him, he was backing in, but he was holding.’

“So you’re going to have decisions on everything. But for me there was no problem and I’m just proud of my players, I have no concerns about anyone else, I’m just proud of my players.”

Coleman also gave his view on Town’s penalty which was awarded after Alan Sheehan was felled by Janoi Donacien in the area, as he said: “If he’s ran into him, he’s ran into him. You can say the lad’s being clever or the lad’s cheating, unfortunately the referee’s fallen for it.

“I think one of the things is to win penalties and there’s a difference between getting a penalty and winning a penalty.”

To that, Jones simply answered: “Have a look on TV and tell me. Absolutely stonewall penalty, absolutely stonewall penalty.”