Stanley boss John Coleman believes his side were second best as they progressed to the quarter finals of the Leasing.com Trophy with a penalty shootout win over Fleetwood Town.

The Reds took the lead in the first half through Joe Pritchard, but then fell behind as Josh Morris and Danny Andrew both scored for Fleetwood. Ross Sykes then notched an 89th minute equaliser to send it to a shootout.

Sam Finley stepped up and smashed the winning penalty into the top corner to win it 5-3 for Stanley.

“The wind made it very difficult, both teams tried to play,” said Stanley boss Coleman.

“I thought Fleetwood were the better side, I thought they started bright and pinned us back form early on.

“I know we had a strong wind against us, but we couldn’t get into it. They weren’t really overly troubling us, but they were just better than us, their movement was better.

“The first time we go into their box, we score, and it was against the run of play. You’d have to admit that we were fortunate to be going in with a lead at half time.

“Second half we thought it was going to be difficult to score in open play because of the wind and to create chances.

“We’ve conceded a sloppy set piece and then conceded from it, which was poor.

“An individual error and then a foul lead to a very good free kick from Andrew, we knew he had that in his locker.

“Our keeper was possibly disappointed that he’s left him too much space. I’d have to say they were value for their lead after that and they could have extended it because they had the better chances.”

Central defender Sykes scored the late equaliser after being thrown up front for the late stages.

But Coleman says he couldn’t claim any credit for that.

He added: “We had a couple of half chances. We put Ross Sykes up front at the end, it wasn’t my decision, it was Jimmy Bell’s.

“Jimmy has to take the credit for that. When it goes to penalties, it’s the toss of a coin.

“If I was the Fleetwood manager or a Fleetwood fan then I’d be disappointed to be going out tonight because over the 90 minutes, they were the better team.”