[themaclad]

Mac ......... everybody gets more fans than Accrington. I'm expecting them to be in the promotion race from Div 2 though. Coleman is as shrewd as Chesterfield's manager is naive.

Totally agree about Coley shrewd man got some good loannees in.

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ACCRINGTON STANLEY 3 (Richards-Everton,Clark, Kee) PRESTON NORTH END 2 (Hugill 2)

Accrington Stanley line-up: Jorgensen, Forbes, Hughes, Richards-Everton, Nolan, Clark, Brown (Conneely, 81), Edwards (Kee, 46), Jackson, McConville, Dallinson. Subs not used: Chapman, McLeod, Sykes, Sousa, Ogle.

PNE line-up: Maxwell, Vermijl, O’Connor, Grimshaw (Maguire, 65), Boyle, Davies, Horgan, Gallagher, Hugill, Robinson (Browne, 80), Mavididi (Johnson, 53). Subs not used: Hudson, Woods, Huntington, Earl.

Attendance: 2,879 (1,736 PNE fans)

North End skillfully avoided their usual second round tie at Bournemouth by losing at the Wham Stadium on a soggy East Lancashire night and to be fair to the home side they wanted it more and deserved to win.
Neil made 9 changes whilst the home side had three debutants in the back four plus a keeper making his first start. Although we made lots of changes it should have been enough to see off the League 2 side but on last night's showing there is not much depth to the squad.
Stanley caused problems for North End almost from the first whistle with our defence having a collective nightmare, O'Connor on his debut started poorly and got worse although has to be said that other new boy Mavididi didnot exactly help him out with defensive duties, only a fine double save from Maxwell kept Stanley out but not for too long as they took the lead when from a cross no one spotted the unmarked 6ft5 defender Richards-Everton who had time to turn and fire past Maxwellto give the home side the lead. Could have been two but a good block by Vermijl denied Stanley a good opportunity. North End did create chances going forwards however the shooting was abysmal and most of our efforts ended up in Great Harwood. Only Horgan forced the mammoth Jorgensen into a save and as for the corners,, enough said like the shooting but worse.
Highlight of the first half was a Grimshaw run powered his way towards the Accrington defence leaving everyone in his wake only to overrun the ball and virtually crash into the wall at the home fans end, it did make me laugh.
Second half Stanley looked to cash in on our defensive weakness luckily for us they didn't. We got slowly back into the game shots were still heading out of the ground, however 15 minutes from the end we actually scored a decent goal, a couple of one twos in midfield andf Hugill in on goal, scores level.
Davies was unlucky with a header from a Robinson corner but both him and Boyle denied Stanley with two excellent tackles in the area.
Stanley took the lead and to me there was a clear push on Boyle, the ball found it's way to Clark who slid the ball past Maxwell.
North End fans started to leave, those that left missed Maguire's chip to the back post for Hugill to level the scores in the 90th minute. Extra time looked on the cards but from a corner after a bit of head tennis Kee headed home the winner.
Not a great night Robinson had a decent game and Hugill started to show his worth after he scored but the boss will not have been impressed with the performance.
No May, Doyle or Pringle looks like the exit door for them but a welcome return to Calum Woods as an unused substitute

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Alex Neil Rues Missed Opportunities

PNE manager Alex Neil was left thinking what might have been after North End were beaten 3-2 against Accrington Stanley this evening.

Goals from Ben Richards-Everton, Jordan Clark and Billy Kee in the 93rd minute cancelled out Jordan Hugill's brace, and Neil pointed to the abundance of missed opportunities that North End had throughout the game.

It was a much changed side from the one that beaten Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday, yet Neil believed the side he put out was still more than comfortable of finding a route into the next round.

"It's always difficult as we have made nine changes to the team," said Neil. "Because we have lost everybody is going to say we were rubbish because it's against lower league opposition but I didn't think we were rubbish, especially in the second half.

"First half we should have done better but we still had numerous opportunities where we could have scored but we didn't.

"Jordan's scored two goals, Callum's had five or six good opportunities - I thought our final ball in into the final third was poor and I think the frustrating thing certainly for the second goal, it was definitely a free kick."

The decision Neil alluded to in his post match comments was the foul on Andy Boyle in the lead up to the goal - a foul which Neil believed the official did not spot.

He continued: "Andy Boyle's let the ball bounce which he shouldn't have done but there's a push in the back and they've managed to score the goal from that.

"We then get ourselves back into the game but we got undone by a set play which is really frustrating as that's something we've been working really hard on. If we took anywhere near the amount of opportunities we had we would have won the game.

"We had more of the ball, we had more shots on goal and more final entries into the final third but ultimately what matters is the final score and we've lost the match.

"The bottom line is, is that we wanted to get into the next round. I'm frustrated over some performances because we did not play as well as we can but I think if we took our opportunities we would have won the game."