ACCRINGTON Stanley manager John Coleman said this is a game his side would have lost a few weeks ago.

Stanley came from a goal behind at the Wham Stadium to take a point from the game.

The Reds boss added how Ben Richards-Everton and Jonny Maxted should have dealt with Southend's goal better.

Coleman highlighted how his players were a bit 'flat' on Saturday afternoon.

"Probably. When we weren’t scoring goals we wouldn’t have found a way to score, but when you’re players are full of confidence it helps," said Coleman.

"Dan Barlaser is always full of confidence if truth be known.

"We just want to be more creative because that’s how we set up to play, especially at home.

"We had a decent crowd here and we want to entertain them and I think we were a bit flat, maybe that’s a consequence of Tuesday as well. "We’re better than that going forward, our wide players didn’t really get us on the edge of our seats.

"Paul Smyth didn’t have too many runs, Billy battled away like he always does.

"We didn’t get our fullbacks in too many advanced positions either. I think both teams cancelled each other out towards the end."

The Reds boss added how a miscommunication was the reason for Southend's opener.

"Ben should deal with it better. It’s a miscommunication between Ben and Jonny and I think either of them could’ve avoided it," said Coleman.

"As it was, it was neither of them and when you’ve got that situation you’ve got a big chance of being punished and we did.

"We lost Jonny as well. I thought Dimi did well when we came on - it was a difficult thing to do and they put a lot of balls in to the box but he dealt with them well."