JOHN Coleman said Tuesday night’s Papa John’s Trophy defeat to Wigan Athletic was the lowest point of his managerial career and said Stanley’s performance did not reflect him or his coaching staff.

The Reds were beaten 5-4 on penalties after the tie at the Wham Stadium ended 1-1 after Harry Pell’s opener was cancelled out by Stephen Humphrys long-range deflected effort.

While Coleman admitted penalties are a lottery he said a spot-kick victory would have just papered over the cracks.

Stanley were looking to build on the morale-boosting 1-0 win at Lincoln City on Saturday having suffered a 4-0 defeat at Burton Albion the previous Tuesday.

But instead Coleman was left fuming after what he called an ‘unacceptable’ display.

“We were poor all night, one moment of quality was a great ball by Tom Scully and a good header by Harry Pell – we didn’t create another chance,” he said.

“Devoid of ideas, devoid of attacking ideas. Woeful, absolutely woeful.

“When I thought it could not get any lower than last Tuesday, it has. This is the lower point I have probably had in my career managing a football team because that doesn’t reflect me, that doesn’t reflect Jimmy, it doesn’t reflect John Doolan.

“That doesn’t reflect how we play, how our teams play, how we pass the ball, how we make chances.

“We just slept walked through that game and it’s unacceptable.

He added:” I have got to work with these lads again on Saturday and my biggest regret of the whole night is that I didn’t change the team completely and give all the lads who were standing on the side lines champing at the bit for a game.

“I didn’t play them and that is my biggest regret.

“Wigan obviously haven’t prioritised this cup and we obviously have and that is what the result was. I thought we had to get on a run of winning games and I thought the team we put out was more than capable of beating Wigan’s reserves.

“Obviously it wasn’t.”