Fleetwood Town players must dust themselves down after Accrington Stanley defeat

Dan Batty was sent off with the game goalless in the first half before Town suffered a sixth league defeat in eight.

Braces from Ethan Hamilton and Colby Bishop did the majority of the damage, while Liam Coyle scored his first Stanley goal.

Harrison Biggins’ effort was a mere footnote as Fleetwood’s away winless run in the league stretched to six games.

With a match against Bolton Wanderers tomorrow, Crainey reflected: “It’s disappointing to lose 5-1. I don’t think it was a 5-1, but the reality is it finished 5-1.

“We need to dust ourselves down and really attack the Bolton game.

“It was a tough game. We knew it was going to be a tough game against Accrington.

“They had the wind behind them in the first half and that hemmed us in.

“I thought the response to going two behind was positive.

“We got the goal and looked the more likely to potentially then get an equaliser.

“The third goal was a sucker punch, and after that, you’re chasing the game and then we open up and concede another couple of goals.”

Batty’s sending off in the 23rd minute for a challenge on Harvey Rodgers left the visitors with a mountain to climb.

They were only 1-0 down at the break, but were run ragged in the second half.

“The red card was a really big turning point obviously,” added Crainey.

“It’s hard enough to come here with 11 men, let alone 10. It was a real big turning point.

“I’ve not seen it yet and I’ll have to look back at it, but first glimpse from the side was that it wasn’t a red card. I think the wetness of the pitch means the momentum goes into him.”

That wasn’t the only decision which Crainey thought referee Tom Nield got wrong.

“I thought some of the refereeing decisions were poor,” he said.

“I was really unhappy with them. I don’t think we got any rub of the green in that sense.

“That’s not me making excuses, we lost the game 5-1 which is really disappointing.

“I think we should have had a penalty. I thought there was a pull back on Conor McLaughlin and it was one of those days where it didn’t seem the referee was going to give us anything.”

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