Stanley manager John Coleman has told fans that they need to start showing support to midfielder Sean McConville.

The 27-year-old scored Stanley’s goal during the 1-1 draw with Wycombe on Tuesday, but still appears to be receiving criticism from a lot of the Reds supporters.

Coleman is unhappy with that criticism, and has urged the fans to get behind all of the players in his team.

“My man of the match against Wycombe was Sean McConville but what do I know. Our fans probably thought he was hopeless,” Coleman told the club’s official website.

“There is a big section of our fans who seem to dislike him just because he’s Sean McConville. He’s still probably not one of their favourites but you can’t deny the work rate he showed against Wycombe.

“Just look at the goal itself. If you take it back to where he picked the ball up and then to get where he did to score, it was a fantastic goal.

John Coleman

“We all have to get behind everybody at this club and we try to do that with our players. We don’t single out individuals for poor treatment.

“If it’s not working for a certain player then we try to stay with them and do the best. We don’t try to punish them.

“We like to think we’ve got a good squad work ethic and family mentality and we’re all pulling for the same goal.”

McConville is in his second spell with Accrington after returning to the club last year. He originally played for the Reds from 2009 to 2011 before joining Stockport County.

After three games, Stanley are in 15th place in the table ahead of their match against Exeter City at the Wham Stadium on Saturday, but Coleman insists it will be a while before he pays attention to the table.

“I tend to look at things after ten games. I think the players know that they are capable of more and hopefully they can deliver that,” he said. “I’d like to be playing 100 per cent in every game from beginning to end rather than building up but the one thing is that if you’re losing and not playing well and know there’s no improvement then you are really going to struggle. We know there is room for improvement and hopefully we’ll see that.

“I just think we have to tighten up a little bit defensively and then make sure we’re a bit more creative going the other way.”

Stanley have a couple of injury problems ahead of the match with Exeter, with his forward options still not fully fit. A bug has also gone round the Stanley dressing room over the last few days.