John Coleman is hoping Accrington Stanley put the 2-1 defeat at Exeter behind them after a good performance saw them walk away with nothing.

Stanley were level at half-time and then dominated the second half, hitting the woodwork twice and coming close on several occasions but Coleman accepted that it was part of the game.

“You know, sometimes, there is a little bit of luck involved. It happens in football and you have to accept that,” Coleman told the club’s official website.

“Sometimes the luck doesn’t go with you. But what you have to do is put yourself in a position where luck can favour you and the more of an attacking threat you are the luckier positions you can put yourself in.

“We’ve hit the woodwork twice. The first one has hit the inside of the post, flew across the line and gone out.

“The second one has hit the bar and bounced to one of their players. They’ve had a scramble and it’s dropped to one of their players and he’s put it in. It happens in football and you have to accept that.”

Coleman also displayed his dismay at Exeter’s equaliser with calls for offside waved away as well as his own side’s start despite going 1-0 up inside three minutes.

“Well I think we probably didn’t start the game well.

“They’ve had three attempts before we finally woke up. Out of the blue we go up the other end and we score after two and a half minutes, but then we only hold the lead for two-and-a-half minutes!” said Coleman.

“It is poor defending from us, it’s unclear whether the lad is offside or not, I don’t know whether he is offside or not.

“We don’t play offside though, so for our centre half to play offside at that stage when you’re 1-0 up is suicide.

“He’s hit it well but I’m disappointed it’s gone in. It looked like there was one winner. Then we were a bit sloppy and things like that happen in football.

“There’s a lot of football to be played between now and the end of the season, we’ve got to put this setback behind us and concentrate on the next game.”

Bad luck and a possible offside goal were not the only things Coleman was frustrated about with the weather conditions threatening to make an impact too.

“You only just have to look at the pitch to be honest. You couldn’t pass the ball in the middle of the pitch in the second half,” Coleman said.

“It’s probably why they got the corner for their goal. The ball got stuck under Joe’s feet and he’s ended up giving a corner.”