STANLEY boss John Coleman hailed Reds match-winner Paddy Lacey as an example to the rest of his squad after he hit a stunning winner to see off Portsmouth.

Lacey fired home an unstoppable strike seven minutes after the restart to crown his league debut with the winner.

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And Coleman was full of praise for the 23-year-old former Barrow midfielder.

The Reds boss said: “It was a great goal, to be fair to Paddy he is always capable of doing that, it was a not a shock to us. It was a goal worthy of winning any game.

“We tossed up between him and Steven Hewitt to start. Steven Hewitt has done nothing wrong, he has acquitted himself well when he has played. It was a chance for Paddy who hasn’t started yet in a league game and what a way to crown your first league start with a goal.

“We need players who are ready to go and who are primed that when they are called upon they can go straight in and compete. Paddy has worked hard in training and kept himself in tip top condition and that is a lesson to the other lads who are out of the side at the moment.”

Lacey’s strike settled a match low on chances and Coleman admitted it was a game that could have gone either way.

He added: “I think we gave them a bit too much respect in the first half, our players were more concerned about keeping them out rather than breaking them down and, once we reminded them of that, in the second half we were a lot more positive.

“We had some words at half time and said we would have to be more of an attacking threat and I think we were and I think we just about shaded it.

“It was two teams cancelling each other out and it was going to take a moment of magic and thankfully that moment of magic came from us and not them.”

And Coleman, whose side are up to 11th after halting Pompey’s four match League Two winning streak, now wants his side to build on back to back wins and successive clean sheets ahead of Wednesday’s trip to West Ham in the EFL Cup third round and a league visit to Colchester on Saturday.

“The difference is we are competing now,” added Coleman of his resurgent Reds. “We gifted Morecambe and Exeter points here and we have to use that as our trigger to stop making those mistakes again.

“The consequences are crucial, that has cost us a lot of ground in the league so far because we feel we should be four points on from where we are.

“We’ve just to hit the consistency that I know we are capable of. We have a great squad and a great team spirit and we have to keep pushing each other.”

On the midweek trip to the Olympic Stadium to take on the Hammers Coleman added: “I hope the players enjoy it, I am going there to try and win the game but I would swap that for a win next Saturday.”