DELIGHTED Accrington Stanley boss John Coleman has compared Bobby Grant’s sublime chip in Saturday’s 4-0 home win over Cheltenham to the sort of goal Eric Cantona once scored for Manchester United.

Coleman will be able to celebrate his 47th birthday today in a good mood after Stanley made it three wins and 11 goals from their last three home games with a stunning second-half blitz of the Robins.

Four goals in 14 minutes came thanks to a first senior goal from Chris Turner, a penalty from Phil Edwards and two strikes from Grant – but it was Grant’s second, a brilliant chip out of nothing from 20 yards, that was the pick of the bunch.

It was the latest in a growing list of superb strikes from the 19-year-old emerging talent, and Coleman saw similarities with the goal Cantona famously scored against Sunderland during his United days.

“It was very Cantona-esque,” said the Stanley boss.

“It was a beautiful goal and I thought Bobby’s first goal was a good finish, too.

“And I’m delighted for Chris Turner. That was his first league goal and it’s a great boost for any player.

“For my 500-and-odd goals, I never got a league goal so he’s already ahead of me!

“Michael Symes didn’t score but I thought he was absolutely magnificent.

“That was as good a centre forward’s performance in the second half as I’ve ever seen.”

Coleman had not been impressed with his side’s performance in a goalless first half, but he allowed his young troops – the starting 11 had an average age of 23 – to try to learn the lessons themselves at half time.

He said: “Give our lads their due. We spoke about how we wanted to play in the second half. We asked them if they could come up with ideas.

“We knew the answers but we asked them to try to find the answers themselves and we got all the right messages at half time from what we wanted to hear.

“It’s pleasing when players take the responsibility for how to improve and then go out and do it.”

Coleman was able to hand 17-year-old midfielder Adam Black a first-team debut in the final few minutes, having left Jimmy Ryan on the bench as he continued to overcome flu. Darran Kempson (groin) was brought off as a precaution.

Billy Kee was unavailable, even though he was at the game, because he was about to link up with Northern Ireland under 21s for their match tomorrow and did not have permission from them to play.