FURIOUS Accrington Stanley manager John Coleman believes his side has become a soft target for Nationwide Conference referees.

Robbie Williams' late red card in the 3-2 defeat against Dagenham and Redbridge on Saturday took Stanley's dismissals to 11 for the season.

But Coleman believes referees are paying too much attention to the Reds' disciplinary record than events on the pitch.

"Robbie dived at the ball but he hasn't gone to injure the lad, he's gone to win the ball fair and square. If that's a sending off they should have had two or three sent off," Coleman said.

"The linesman came out with a ridiculous statement saying it was a life threatening challenge. Well unless he's got a machine gun in his hand I just can't see that!

"But we've not had any luck with officials this season. The referee seemed keen to book us at the drop of a hat.

"Some of the decisions in the second half on Saturday defied belief. Our penalty defied belief, it was never a penalty, but 10 minutes earlier there was a blatant foul on Lutel James and he didn't give a penalty.

"But it's second nature for us to play with 10 men now - I think our reputation is going before us and we're soft targets."

But Coleman admitted he wouldn't hide behind the referee's poor performance.

"The referee had a horror show but that doesn't hide the fact that we were awful," he said.

"We were embarrassing in the second half. We didn't get anywhere near Dagenham, they dominated the second half and they'll feel as though they got what they deserved, albeit they've played against 10 men for the last few minutes.

"I don't think we deserved anything out of the game and I think if we'd have won we'd have stolen it."

He added: "Their late goals were a sickener but it was bad defending on our part. It was tip tap around the box, no-one wanted to dive in there and get a block on it.

"It was symptomatic of the way we played - every time we tried to clear the ball it went to them.

"No one wanted to go and chase the game."

Coleman fears those three dropped points could mean the end of Stanley's play-off ambitions. But he has urged his side to up the tempo for the rest of the campaign.

"In the space of a month we've gone out of two cups, lost at home and only won one league game in a month and didn't play well when we won that," he said.

"It's not good enough for the club, the fans or me.

"If the players think I'm going to accept that they're wrong. They've got a long, hard week ahead of them.

"I've said some people are playing for their futures and you wouldn't think so on Saturday's performance. You would have thought Dagenham were the team chasing the play-offs and not us."

STEVE Lowe is running a coach to tomorrow night's England National Game XI against Italy Under 23s at Shrewsbury's Gay Meadow.

Entry to the game is free and the coach will leave the Crown Pub, Whalley Road, Accrington at 3.30pm. Contact Steve on 07775 704072.

Friendly ( Monday 9th Feb 2004 )

Rossendale United 0 - 1 Accrington Stanley

Reds' friendly win

SOCCER: DAMIEN Hindle scored in Accrington Stanley's 1-0 friendly win at Rossendale United last night.

Meanwhile, a number of first team players will be involved in the Reds' reserve match at Ossett Town tonight, and the youth team is in action at Blackpool Wren Rovers on Thursday night. Both games kick-off at 7.30pm.