JOHN Coleman says he feels he owed it to Seamus Conneely to contest his midweek red card, even though the Accrington Stanley boss admitted he had lost faith in the appeals process.

Conneely was harshly sent off against Ipswich Town for what referee Bobby Madley deemed to be a foul on Troy Parrott.

Goalkeeper Nathan Baxter saved the subsequent penalty but Ipswich went on to capitalise on their one-man advantage and come from behind to win 2-1 at the Wham Stadium.

It prompted a rant about the standard of refereeing from the Reds boss, and predicted empathy from head of referees Mike Jones in a Wednesday phone call with Coleman.

And it was with that in mind that Coleman decided to challenge the decision in the hope of having his captain available for Saturday's visit of Swindon Town and not suspended.

"It took a lot of toing and froing in my own mind what to do, I think I owe it to the player, it's that blatant," said the Stanley boss.

"And I hope that they see it like the head of the referees has seen it, that they see it like any referee would look at that.

"I think if the referee in question had looked at it again he'd know he'd made an error.

"Possibly going forward maybe the appeals process should include some aspect of that.

"If you've got people controlling the referees why aren't you asking for their input?

"They're specialists, so when it goes to the appeal they should be involved, but I don't make those rules or decisions."

Coleman admitted that his mood had not altered much since Tuesday's incident.

"I'm still blazing. I'm probably at the level when we drew 0-0 with Stevenage not to go up on the last day of the season. That's how angry I am," he said.

"I did have the conversation with Mike Jones and I feel for him. As much as I feel for myself I feel for him because this has been a reoccurring theme this season, not just for me.

"Human error, you've just got to accept it. We make more mistakes than the referees. Managers and players make more mistakes than the referees, but their mistakes unfortunately impact on us, massively.

"It's not isolated incidents that hurt you, it's the ongoing steady drip. It is bad luck and I'm not stupid enough to think that there's any other hidden agenda, but it's just so frustrating when you see so many go against you and not many go for you. But you've just got to play through it. We won't be the only team that suffers from bad decisions this season and it's not done deliberately.

"When you go back to it a referee has a couple of seconds to make a decision. Possibly could take a little bit longer to make that isolated decision but they only have a few seconds to make a decision. They get more right than they get wrong but the ones that they get wrong have a massive impact on our lives, not just the game. Your whole mood, the mood of the fans, the mood of the players, the mood of the whole club.

"We just have to hope that if we keep working hard we get into positions where we're going into their box and we're not giving penalties away we've got chances of getting penalties or scoring goals and that's what we've got to try to hope."

Coleman added: "I don't want an apology off him (Jones) because he's got nothing to be sorry about but he empathised with me like I knew he would.

"When you see it again, it's debatable as to whether Seamus has actually touched the ball, so to say he hasn't played the ball, that is quite remarkable. But it's gone now and we have to look forward, not backwards.

"You've just got to try to put a lot of that out of your mind.

"It's been difficult for me I'll be honest. I've been trying to switch off from football for a day or two and I can't.

"When you're so close, and we are so close, if half of the decisions that we've had hadn't gone against us the way they have this season we'd probably be in the top three now and that's the frustrating thing but you can't go on ifs and buts you've just got to look forward.

"I remember the season we won the league we had very few decisions against us. We had a couple that went in our favour but not many went against us. We didn't have any sendings off that I can recall. We've had five this season. Probably one of them has been justified. That's where it's frustrating."

Coleman could be without goalkeeper Nathan Baxter against Swindon after the Chelsea loanee went off with a shoulder injury against Ipswich.

"It's settled down a little bit, it's still sore. We just have to see how it goes and wait for the results of the scan and take it from there," said the Stanley boss.

"But we've got a perfectly good replacement in Toby (Savin). It's very difficult to come on in that position on a very cold night. It's not like a normal player warming up, goalkeeper, it's a specialist position.

"He made a wonderful save, Toby, in the game. So if Toby has to play Saturday no problem."

Coleman is also assessing the fitness of Joe Pritchard ahead of the weekend's game.

"I've got to speak to Joe and the medical staff about him today and we'll get more of a handle on him probably by the end of the week," he said.