Stanley boss John Coleman was left baffled by the referee’s decision to send him to the stands during the 0-0 draw with Crawley.

The Accrington manager was unable to watch the second half from the dugout after he had a run-in with the referee on the stroke of half-time.

Coleman didn’t understand the verdict, and was less than impressed with the referee.

“I must be the only manager in the history of football to be sent off having never left his seat at all in the first half,” he said.

“I asked the referee why he had booked Matty Pearson as it seemed mysterious, and he said he’d had a few pops at him.

“I don’t know if the referee was still smarting for not giving us the penalty and was possibly analysing his own performance, but he then decided to have a pop at me.

“I think we both could have handled ourselves a bit better and I think the referee on reflection will realise that.”

‘Boss applauds unlucky Stanley’

Stanley manager John Coleman believes his side will earn promotion this season if they continue to play how they played against Crawley last weekend.

Coleman felt it was the best his side have played this season, even though the Reds were held to a 0-0 draw away from home.

While they may have only taken a point from the match, Coleman was impressed with his players and feels they will reach League One if they replicate that performance week in week out.

“If we play like that all season then we’ll get promoted, and there is still more to come from us,” he told the club’s official website.

“You don’t always get what you deserve from games and we’ve got to finish better, but it’s hard to be critical of the players because I thought we were fantastic.

“We were dominant for a big period of the game and had some great chances, so how we missed them I don’t know.

“We had our skipper missing for the game but I still thought we were dominant in midfield, and there are a lot more things to be positive about than negative.

“I know we are disappointed because we haven’t won and the lads were sick in the dressing room so it felt like a defeat, but we’ve got to be objective and realise that we played well.

“We played some good football and showed determination and great intensity with the way that we played.

“The lads didn’t give Crawley a minute on the ball but we are obviously critical of our own players and they know we need to be ruthless in front of goal.”

The draw means that Stanley have taken four points from their last two games ahead of this weekend’s clash with Newport County at the Wham Stadium.

While he may have been pleased with his players against Crawley, Coleman revealed it will all count for nothing if they’re not victorious this weekend.

“You can only judge if we get three points on Saturday.

“If we win then seven points out of nine is a good return that you will take every time,” he said.

“Every time you draw a match you need to come back and try to win the next one, so that’s what we’ll be trying to do.”

Newport have had an extremely difficult time this season, with the team currently rock bottom of the division.

They have won just one of their 13 games, drawing five and losing seven to leave them six points from safety.

They were held to a 2-2 draw with Barnet in their last match, with Ben Tozer and Sean Rigg getting the goals for Newport.