ACCRINGTON Stanley manager John Coleman bemoaned the lapses in his sides' defence as they were beaten by fellow League Two strugglers Boston United.

Drewe Broughton's 72nd minute strike was enough to sink the Reds, and Coleman was disappointed at the nature of the goal they conceded: He said: "Rob Elliot takes a great kick but unfortunately chooses to throw it to Andy Mangan in his own half, which is a bad decision.

"It results in a throw-in, another throw-in then a third throw-in from that spell of pressure, and results in the goal with Phil Edwards not picking a man up and Michael Welch totally losing his man in the box.

"They (Boston) will think it's a good goal, but from our point of view it's a horrendous goal to concede.

"I thought, in the main, that we defended well in the second half, but if you go to sleep you're going to get punished. We huffed and puffed really and never really tested their keeper enough."

Coleman admitted that defeat was a real blow after a morale-boosting win at Wrexham on New Year's Day: "We probably can't take any positives from the game. We've lost to a team who aren't better than us and there's no getting out of that.

"They probably applied themselves a bit better and they probably used their tools a bit better than us. I thought too many of our players were below par today."

And the Stanley boss hinted that there could be changes if the poor results continued: "If we keep defending like that: defend well for 90 minutes and then have one lapse, it tells me that if they're going to keep doing that then they're not going to be good enough and we'll have to bring better players in."