JOHN Coleman said it was fitting that a club stalwart scored Accrington Stanley’s historic first League One goals to secure their first win since promotion.

Sean McConville scored a late winner away to Bristol Rovers after his early opener had been cancelled out in the 83rd minute.

The midfielder was the subject of transfer speculation after helping the Reds to the League Two title - earning a place in the division’s PFA team of the year in the process.

But he showed his commitment to the club by signing a new three-year contract ahead of the new season.

“He was subject to a lot of conjecture about transfers in the summer and teams in League One offering ridiculously low sums of money,” said Coleman.

“For someone who’s got that in his locker they should be putting two noughts on what they’re offering. It’s fitting he scored.

“You’re delighted to win the game obviously and delighted to get your first win because the longer it goes on the more difficult it becomes.”

But rather than heap praise on individuals, Coleman preferred to credit a collective effort for earning their first three points in League One.

“The character that the lads showed was very very good, and we’re going to need that,” said the Reds boss.

“We’ve got 44 games to go and every one of them is going to be a battle. But if we play the football that we played (on Saturday) and get a little bit of the rub of the green, who knows where we can go.

“I thought it was a cracking game - two teams wanting to win the game, two teams playing some really good passing football and it was played in a great spirit. I think that was reflected in the fact there was only one yellow card.

“I must admit when we were 1-0 up and we squandered a chance when Jordan (Clark) has gone clean through and hit the underside of the bar you start to think that might come back to bite you on the bottom. And it did.

“They equalised with a good header at the far post. We’re disappointed the cross came in. But the character we showed after that was fantastic.

“We created a couple of chances ourselves after that and thankfully we took one opportunity that fell to Sean.”

And Coleman believes the win, and manner of it, has helped to restore confidence that took a knock after the opening day loss against Gillingham.

“We had to get our belief back that sort of disappeared from us last week,” he said.

“I don’t know if it was the cloud hanging over us over the Kayden Jackson transfer and whether he was or whether he wasn’t (going), and the aftermath of Janoi Donacien going. But we lost three big players at the start of last season and went on and won the league. We have to just focus on the players that we’ve got here and the players have to focus on each other, and they did.”