ACCRINGTON Stanley boss John Coleman admitted his side weren’t clinical enough as his side saw their four-match winning streak ended by Oxford United on Saturday.

The U’s, managed by former Blackburn Rovers boss Michael Appleton, were 3-1 winners at the Wham Stadium to hand Stanley their first league defeat since August 15 but Coleman insists the Reds will bounce back.

MORE TOP STORIES:

The defeat leaves Stanley in seventh place and the Accrington chief is confident his squad can maintain a promotion charge this season.

“We had the chance to go 22 points off 11 games and I can’t remember us ever doing that and if you do that then you win the league,” said Coleman.

“We will just work hard at what we are doing an we will see where it takes us.

“We’ve got to go again. We’ve got to try and get another run going and start again next week.”

Coleman felt his side could easily have emerged with at least a point from what was an even encounter.

“That was a game that could of gone either way,” he said.

“We conceded the first and second goals when we were miles on top. You’ve got to score when you are on top. They scored at great moments, “For 75 minutes we had the best chances, we missed three sitters, we’ve missed two open goals and in the end they have punished us and you have got to take your hat off to them.

“They couldn’t believe their luck to go 2-1 up. You’ve got to be capable of converting chances when you get them and they were clinical. I don’t think our goalkeeper has made a save, that’s the frustrating thing.

“On balance of chances we probably had as many as them but they were clinical.”

Coleman also felt a Sean McConville miss after Billy Kee had hit the bar just before Oxford scored their second had an impact on the outcome.

“We would have won three or four, at that point we were all over them,” said Coleman. “But that’s football and you get punished sometimes.

“We have got to hope that this is a minor setback and that we defend better than we did because we didn’t defend well.”

Stanley travel to Barnet on Saturday and will hope to be boosted by the return of injured centre back Tom Davies, who missed the Oxford defeat, and Joe Wright, who had to be replaced at half time.

Coleman added: “They were well organised and they kept us out but we have got to defend better than we did. The first and second goals are avoidable and the penalty - well you shouldn’t foul people in the box.

“People will go away thinking they are a good side and they are but they are no better than us.

“They will be up there at the end of the season but so will we - we’ve just got to be a bit more savvy.”