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Football

26th Jan 2019

Accrington Stanley manager says he is ‘falling out of love with football’ after FA Cup loss

Accrington Stanley lost to Derby County in the FA Cup on Saturday, prompting one of the biggest overreactions to a loss of all time

Reuben Pinder

RIP The Magic of the Cup™️, 1872 – 2019

Accrington Stanley suffered FA Cup heartbreak on Saturday afternoon, losing 1-0 to Frank Lampard’s Derby in the fourth round. Martin Waghorn’s 78th minute goal proved the difference at the Wham Stadium, in what was a surprisingly balanced game.

Accrington boss John Coleman said after the game that he is “falling out of love with football”, after several refereeing decisions which he deemed controversial, including a 59th minute red card for midfielder Daniel Barlaser. Coleman strongly disapproved of Jon Moss’ judgement on that tackle in particular and did not mince his words in his post-match interview.

“I feel physically sick,” said Coleman.

“I am rapidly falling out of love with football. Each week you get stiffed by a decision. It’s a tackle, it’s not dangerous. It happened two minutes before on our lad and the referee said it was a coming together.

“The best thing I can say is that you couldn’t tell we were playing with 10 men for the last 25 minutes. Even the most ardent Derby fan would say they didn’t deserve a win, a draw at best.

“I sometimes feel like packing in. Good luck to Derby, I hope they go on and win it but I can’t see it.”

Nobody likes losing in the cup, and emotions run high in football, but I can’t help but feel Coleman’s comments are a slight overreaction.

Derby County were also reduced to ten men in the 90th minute when Jayden Bogle was given his marching orders. But Lampard was a lot more measured in his analysis.

“I was disappointed with the build-up to the red card,” said Lampard.

”We let the ball go over our heads and Bogle had a decision to make. He couldn’t recover and it was a foul and red. In the end it was good for us because he [Billy Kee] didn’t score from the free-kick.”