ACCRINGTON Stanley boss John Coleman admits his side might not be as good as he thought after watching them lose a seven-goal thriller to AFC Wimbledon.

The Reds were 2-0 up inside 10 minutes at the Wham Stadium on Tuesday night and also led 3-2, but they failed to see it out and slipped to a second successive defeat.

Coleman was full of praise for his side's effort in defeat at league leaders Plymouth on Saturday, and believes that could have been a mistake.

"We didn't deserve anything out of the game, you have to take your hat off to Wimbledon, they were better than us," said the Stanley boss.

"We were 2-0 up without getting out of bed and it was too easy for us. But it certainly wasn't in the last hour, they were miles better than us in every department and we went out like a light.

"We've got to move on, we've got to learn from that, and possibly we're not as good as I've been telling everybody. Maybe it was a mistake by me to big our lads up after a defeat on Saturday.

"If we'd have got a draw we would have been fortunate. From being in a wonderful position to win we fluffed our lines, hopefully we won't do it too many more times this season."

Stanley started the game with an unfamiliar back four due to an injury crisis, and full-back Brad Halliday, who only signed on loan from Middlesbrough on the day of the game, went straight into the starting line-up.

The problems worsened when Dean Winnard went off at half-time, with attacker Gerardo Bruna spending the second half at left back.

"I thought Brad Halliday was probably our best defender. I wouldn't be labelling any blame on him that's for sure," said Coleman.

"It didn't help with Dean going off at half time. We've lost four of our five regular defenders, but that doesn't explain the way we played going forward in the second half, we just hit aimless balls up to Billy (Kee)."