Accrington manager hits out at ‘scared’ Nathan Smith and ‘derogatory’ Vale fans after heavy defeat

Accrington Stanley manager John Coleman hit out at both “continually stamping” central defender Nathan Smith and the “very derogatory” Port Vale supporters after his side suffered a 5-1 loss at Vale Park.

The Valiants knocked Accrington out of the FA Cup after scoring five times against the League One outfit but Coleman clearly felt the game hinged on the sending-off of Colby Bishop on 71 minutes.

We could have easily won that game today, playing no different. That is football…

Bishop was dismissed for an off the ball incident, but a bullish Coleman clearly saw the incident differently as he told the official Accrington website: “You know Colby as well as I do. You would have to burn his house down to get a reaction off Colby.

“Unfortunately, Colby gets this done to him every week. It’s not fair but that’s life. Life sometimes isn’t fair. A lot of the time life isn’t fair for Colby because he gets battered from pillar to post every single week.

“Today, their number 6 (Nathan Smith) was possibly a little bit scared of Colby in the air and he thought the best way was to try to get a reaction from him by continually stamping on him and holding him.”

Many Vale fans will no doubt completely disagree with this assessment and to coin Coleman’s own phrase, knowing Nathan Smith as we do, we know he’s not scared of any player and is himself continually subject to heavy handed treatment including carrying on after being elbowed in the face against Crawley.

Accrington were trailing to a James Wilson strike before Bishop was dismissed but Coleman claimed  “At 1-0 we were very much in the game.”

An emotional Coleman also criticised the Port Vale crowd adding: “We could have easily won that game today, playing no different. That is football… their fans were very derogatory about us towards the end. We will see if we play them next year if they are saying the same thing. They would be lucky to play us next year so let’s see.”

However, despite claiming his side could win, Coleman then praised the Vale performance adding: “They had their tails up and the crowd got behind them great and they played some smashing football when we went down to ten.”

Coleman has been held in high esteem and respect by many Vale fans who are aware of his long service and ability to produce quality football on a budget. Several fans posted on our forum about how much they respected Coleman and his achievements at Accrington. However, these remarks will no doubt sour that relationship. Coleman is a vastly experienced manager and many Port Vale fans will no doubt accuse him of trying to deflect attention away from a heavy defeat by trying to focus attention on the red card rather than his side conceding five times to a side in the division below them.