JOHN Coleman admitted he had “harsh words” with his Accrington Stanley players despite seeing the Reds make it two wins in a row with a 4-2 success over Exeter City.

Stanley led 4-0 after just over an hour at the Wham Stadium but conceded twice in the last 15 minutes and Coleman said the defensive frailties on show late on had ruined the day for him.

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Victory moved the Reds up to sixth in League Two and they have lost just one of their eight league games this term, but Coleman was disappointed with the way his side lost control of the match.

“It’s not so much the defending it was the mentality we showed in the last 20 minutes,” he lamented. “It was attack versus defence for the last 20 minutes, we got battered.

“People can point the finger at me for making the subs but Crooksy (Matt Crooks) has had a bit of an ankle (knock) that he is struggling with in the first half and Seamus (Conneely) looked tired.

“You make two subs and the two lads who came on are both honest lads but now they’ve been hung out to dry because it looks like it’s their fault.

“We declared at 4-0 in a game we thought we could have gone and got six or seven because we were picking them off on the break for fun.

“There’s been a lot of harsh words in there, we’ve got to set our standards high, the second goal we conceded has stopped us going fifth, that’s the margins and that’s how important every goal you concede is.”

Anthony Barry and Andrew Proctor came off the bench for the Reds, and Coleman said he will look at his own decisions as he tries to work out how his side stumbled over the winning line.

“We made two substitutions with 19 minutes to go and from then on we’ve got murdered, maybe I’ve got to look at it, maybe it’s my fault,” he said. “It’s ruined the game for me.”

Josh Windass scored twice in two minutes just after the half hour mark to set Stanley on their way to victory, with Piero Mingoia and Billy Kee scoring twice in three minutes just after the hour mark.

Coleman believes Windass could have had a treble, and knows the frontman’s inconsistency is the only thing holding him back at the moment.

“He should have had a hat-trick and he knows that,” said the Reds boss.

“Josh has got that in his locker. For the first 20 minutes he couldn’t control a bag of cement and for the next 20 minutes he was unplayable, that’s what you get with Josh..”

Coleman was also full of praise for the 1,403 fans in attendance who helped create an excellent atmosphere at the Wham Stadium, but he is still keen to see more coming through the turnstiles.

“The crowd played a big part, they got behind us and you can’t knock the people who come, it’s the people who don’t come you’ve got to knock,” he added.