Stanley manager John Coleman was critical of his defence for the first time this season against Newcastle.
The backline has yet to concede a goal in League Two but let in three against Newcastle – and Coleman was disappointed with the mistakes.
"Their lad has hit a great shot for the first but we should have stopped him long before that," he said. "The two goals after the break were diabolical defending. The first one was not proper marking from a long throw and, for the second goal, it has skidded through Phil Edwards.
"You expect Phil, being one of the best defenders, well I think in the world but I might be presumptious but certainly the best defender in League Two, to do better and Phil knows he should have done better."
While he was critical of his backline though, he was pleased that Ray Putterill and Sean Hessey got off the mark for the season.
"There were two great goals. I was made up for Ray to get his goal but, even by Ray’s own admission, he was poor in the first half but got better in the second half.
"But we had a great chance just after half-time when their lad has cleared the ball off the line and then Charlie Barnett has hit it just wide.¿If one of those goes in it’s a different game.
"But one thing you get from our lads is that they are all honest and all hard workers and they call a spade a spade and they are not going to hide behind anything.
"They don’t care if it is Newcastle’s second team they know they can do better than what they did – and I hope they show it on Saturday at Oxford.
"The frustrating thing is that, if we had played to our top level then we could have come out of the game victorious."
