Accrington Stanley manager John Coleman was proud of his players as they beat Southend United 2-1.

The Shrimpers had not lost a league game at Roots Hall since the start of October, but goals from Piero Mingoia and Terry Gornell gave the Reds a second successive win following Tuesday night’s 1-0 victory against Oxford United.

“The players were superb again today and carried on everything that we spoke about on Tuesday,” said the boss.

“We had a change in preparation for this game: instead of showing the players videos of the opposition we showed them videos of themselves and how well we played against Oxford on Tuesday. We wanted them to try and replicate that performance and I think they did.

“The gameplan was to press them and we know we have skilful players but we have to earn the right to get them on the ball. When we did get them on the ball today some of the football we played was superb.”

Barry Corr pulled a goal back for Phil Brown’s team immediately after Gornell had doubled the Stanley lead and Coleman was pleased to see his side hold on for three points.

“It’s disappointing that we conceded when we did because, if we can keep it tight for another five or ten minutes, they would have gone a bit more gung ho and we would have had more space to counter it and maybe then the scoreline could have flattered us.

“In a perverse sort of way it may be good that we conceded because we’ve had to see out a 2-1 rather than being comfortable in the last five minutes at 2-0.

“We’ve had to withstand the pressure that Southend put on us and we passed that test.” he added.