JOHN Coleman thanked the Accrington Stanley fans who travelled to Mansfield, and apologised for not being able to reward their commitment.

The Reds suffered their biggest defeat of his second spell in charge as they bowed out of the Carabao Cup 6-1 to Mansfield Town.

Around 80 fans made the trip to Field Mill, and would have been optimistic after Sam Finley fired them in front in the sixth minute.

But by the 16th Stanley were 3-1 down, with Mansfield adding a fourth just before half-time.

“I’ve got to thank the fans who came and I really feel sorry for them because no-one wants to see their team beaten that heavily,” said Coleman.

“I don’t like getting beat. I certainly don’t like getting beat 6-1.

“We had a very young back four and had three players making their first starts at this level.

“But I can’t take anything away from Mansfield, they were excellent.

“We scored a fantastic goal to give ourselves a great chance and then a couple of things conspired against us, but that’s not Mansfield’s fault.

“They got the killer goal at half-time to make it 4-1, because up to that we were threatening to get back into it and possibly could have had a penalty ourselves.

“But then in the second half I think a little bit of tiredness in the legs of the lads who haven’t played a lot showed and the two full backs tired.

“We had a very young defence, apart from Mark Hughes, and that showed, and they capitalised on it. The final goal they scored was one of the best goals I’ve ever seen to be honest.

“I think they must have kept it for about 60 passes but we were down to 10 by then. It was a great goal to watch though.”

He added: “The one thing I can be proud of was the way we stuck to our guns. We tried, and ran ourselves into the ground at stages. We didn’t give up.

“But let’s get one thing straight - Accrington won’t win this cup, and neither will Mansfield.

“It would have been a pay day for us if we could have got through to the next round, but our priority is the league.”

Sean McConville and Sam Finley went off with injuries but Coleman is hoping their exits were more a precaution ahead of Saturday’s visit of Charlton Athletic, and nothing serious.

He added: “There’s a few tired legs but we are going to have lots of games and lots of ups and downs.”