JOHN Coleman is confident his Accrington Stanley will learn and adjust quickly to life in League One after losing their opening day game 2-0 at home to Gillingham.

The Reds conceded both goals in the first half, with Coleman blaming a lack of focus for a crucial half-hour spell that left them with a mountain to climb.

Mistakes proved costly as Callum Johnson’s switch-off allowed the Gills to break for the first goal, scored by Brandon Hanlan in the 23rd minute.

Jordan Clark missed a good chance to make it 1-1 from close range, before Josh Parker added the second just before the break.

“Obviously I’m disappointed. I’m disappointed in the way we played for half an hour in the first half,” said Coleman.

“We started off okay but I think they got a corner after about 15-16 minutes and they missed a couple of chances and that gave them a bit of confidence, and unfortunately it was a mistake by Callum Johnson, who has been flawless for long periods.

“Unfortunately he made a mistake and they punished us with the goal.

“And then they got their tails up, they swamped us in midfield, we were guilty of giving the ball away and when we did it was a classic counter attacking performance to be fair. They were better than us and they could have scored four or five in that spell.

“And then we missed the best chance of the match really, Jordan Clark at the far post, and he puts it in the side netting when you think it would be easier to put it into the net.

“He might have been a bit unsighted with the ball coming in.

“But that gave them even more confidence and they go and score again.

“I’ve to give our lads some credit because in the second half they took the game to them.

“They had a couple of corners in the first five minutes of the second half but after that it was one-way traffic, we just couldn’t find a way to break them down. They were well organised. Maybe that’s down to sitting off and trying to keep hold of a two-goal lead or us upping our work-rate and effort and our determination.”

He added: “We know we’ve got to be better and it might act as a wake-up call because I think a lot of them have seen them getting beat 5-1 by Colchester last week, we’ve had a good pre-season, we’ve probably been a little bit blasé going into it and as my old dad used to say ‘we’ve had our eyes wiped’.

“But we’ll learn from it. We can’t get too downbeat. We know we’re a good side and believe me we’ll give them a game at their place."