JOHN Coleman praised Stanley’s goalscoring hero Shay McCartan for his willingness to take a risk to earn his glory.

McCartan’s stunning strike earned the Reds a point against Carlisle after they had been forced to play 78 minutes with 10 men following Matty Pearson’s dismissal.

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Coleman said he had seen the Northern Ireland Under-21 international produce similar goals in training and praised his overall performance against the Cumbrians.

McCartan struck just a minute after Carlisle had taken a 20th minute lead to immediately force Stanley back into the game.

“Fantastic goal. I have watched him do it in training. If you have got that ability you are not going to be scared to make a mistake,” Coleman said of the 22-year-old, who was netting his first goal of the campaign in his 18th appearance.

“So you might hit three over the bar - well, I wouldn’t, I’d probably hit two over the bar and put the third one in! - he’s got to be prepared to make the mistakes in order to get the glory. It was a fantastic goal.

“They could have had two keepers and in they are not saving that.”

Now Coleman has urged McCartan to produce the goods every week and he said he believes he could be one of the best players in League Two.

“I spoke to him after the game. Take away his goal, forget his goal, he was superb,” said the Reds boss.

“He was always going to blow up.

“He is not the most naturally fittest player anyway and certainly not stamina wise but he gives you that spark, even if sometimes he just doesn’t do it. And when he does do it, it leaves you scratching your head why he didn’t do it in the past.

“He can be as good as anyone in this league with that type of play he showed.

“He worked his socks off, he was a constant threat every time we picked up the ball, made intelligent runs, made intelligent passes and I thought his overall performance was one of his best.”

It was almost a dream debut for defender Harvey Rodgers, with the on-loan Hull man coming close to snatching all three points in stoppage time.

Coleman was delighted with the 20-year-old’s performance after playing him from the start.

Of Rodgers’ late chance, Coleman said: “I don’t think I would have been able to contain myself if that had gone in. I thought he did well. I thought he was aggressive in the air which you need from a defender.

“We had a big call. Janoi (Donacien) missed all week for family reasons and we had a big call whether to bring Janoi in but every one who was asked to do a job, I thought did the job and more.

“At the end of the day that is all you can ask for. You hope that a little bit of fortune smiles on you but (on Saturday) we got everything that we worked for.”