ACCRINGTON Stanley boss John Coleman believes that if his side can reproduce the performance shown in their Capital One Cup penalty shootout defeat to Championship heavyweights Hull City then the Reds can challenge in League Two this season.

Stanley were beaten 4-3 on penalties on Tuesday night having twice came from behind to leave the game level at 2-2 after 120 minutes following a goalless 90 minutes, And Coleman, who admitted he was disappointed with the defeat, wants his side to take the positives into this weekend’s Lancashire derby trip to Morecambe.

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“It is frustrating but we have got to go onto Saturday,” said Coleman whose side conceded a late equaliser to draw 1-1 against Luton Town on Saturday in their League Two opener.

“If we play to those levels than we will have a good chance this season but you can’t always play to those levels. There is a lot of difficult situations ahead of us but we have got a good squad here and we showed that.”

Despite running Steve Bruce’s side close at the Wham Stadium Coleman insisted he would not be congratulating his players for the result.

“We should be proud of our performance but there is never any pride in getting beat,” he said.

“If you miss three penalties in a penalty shootout then you don’t deserve to win.

“They deserved to win because they scored more than us on penalties.

“We had enough chances to win the game.

“One of their players would be taking home per week the budget for what we have for our whole squad.

“We’ve got a great spirit in the squad and a great character and they will want to put that right on Saturday.

“It was a good game and we showed a lot of character to come back twice from going down.

“We scored a great goal to get back level the first time and Terry (Gornell) showed what a good striker he is in scoring the second.”

Coleman also revealed he had only selected his first five penalty takers for the shootouts adding that he would not have selected Matt Crooks, who missed the crucial kick.

“I feel sorry for Matt Crooks because I thought he was head and shoulders the man of the match,” said Coleman.

“I only picked the five so I don’t know who sorted it but he would be the last person to take a penalty.

“But it is not just down to Matt Crooks, at least he had the courage to take one.”