THERE was a sense of déjà vu for Accrington boss John Coleman as his side went down 2-1 at Burton Albion on Saturday.

For the second time in this early stage of the season, Stanley left the Pirelli Stadium having fought hard but ultimately come away with nothing.

Having gone out on penalties in the Carabao Cup after a 1-1 draw at the start of the month, Coleman saw his side denied by an 87th-minute winner having only levelled things up themselves seven minutes from time.

John Brayford was the Burton hero, flashing a header into the net via the palm of keeper Toby Savin and the post to snatch the points.

A tightly-fought encounter saw home midfielder Joe Powell open the scoring after 72 minutes following good work from Lucas Akins and Kane Hemmings, only for Stanley to battle back and equalise 11 minutes later through Joe Pritchard.

But there was to be sucker punch, leaving Coleman rueing a “flip of the coin” going against his side.

“I didn’t think there was much in the game and I thought we probably had the better chances,” the Stanley boss said.

“They took their two chances and we didn’t take any of ours.

“Our keeper has had two right at him that you would expect him to save and their keeper has made two really good saves.

“It’s a great goal to win it from them to be fair but the game could have gone either way and we just didn’t take our chances and that is the harsh reality of football at this level.

“As hard as we worked and as much as we were organised Burton didn’t pose us too many threats.

“It’s just disappointing that sometimes it becomes like the flip of a coin and today we came down on the wrong side of it.

“I think both sides were a bit better than in the League Cup game today but I don’t think anyone could say that we deserved to lose the game with the amount of chances we created.”

Albion goalkeeper Ben Garratt produced two fine first-half stops with his legs to deny Ryan Cassidy and then Dion Charles, after good work on the left by Chelsea loanee Tariq Uwakwe.

Savin made a smart save from Powell who fired an ambitious 25-yarder towards goal early in the second half, but the Stanley keeper was beaten when Powell swept home after 72 minutes from Hemmings’ astute lay-off.

Pritchard equalised for Stanley, netting from close range after Ross Sykes had struck the woodwork and Albion could not clear, but Brayford had the last say with a superb angled header from Ben Fox’s cross that Savin tipped onto the post but could not keep out.