New normal for football but Accrington Stanley keep defying odds at Kayan Prince

The winners of Saturday’s game at the Kiyan Prince Foundation Stadium had a great chance to become one of League One’s early surprise packages – and it was Accrington Stanley who took the spoils.

They and AFC Wimbledon have worked relative miracles to get and stay in League One, so this was very much a clash of the underdogs – and in it, the visitors recorded a 2-1 win to move up to eighth in the embryonic League One table.

John Coleman’s troops came from behind to win 2-1 as all the goals – Ryan Longman’s opener and Stanley’s four-minute double-salvo via Ross Sykes and Matt Butcher – were scored in the first half.

The encounter proved, as promised, a close game between two well-coached outfits; while the match had plenty of zip and forward endeavour, both sides were impeccably shaped, meaning neither had huge joy carving the other open.

Ross Sykes’ galloping runs from right centre-back into the final third, for example, has been a key feature of Stanley’s play so far this season but Wimbledon’s Steve Seddon and Callum Reilly – the former a Birmingham loanee, the latter a one-time Blues academy graduate – stopped him in his tracks.

The Wombles carried a threat from outside the box, with Luke O’Neil stinging Toby Savin’s palms using his weaker left foot, so it was perhaps no surprise their opener stemmed from a long-range effort – Ryan Longman followed up after Joe Pigott hit the post.

Ryan Longman scored the Wombles’ opener – @AFCWimbledon

After a lull around the half-hour mark, though, Reds finished the half strongly.

They levelled after Ross Sykes turned the ball home following a set piece, giving them the momentum to rekindle their early, free-flowing football and get ahead through Butcher, who capped a high-octane individual display with a fine strike into the bottom right-hand corner.

Stanley may not have the natural quality to maintain their strong passages of play consistently throughout matches at this level – and nor should we expect them to on a low budget – but they mix their game up well.

“I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t learnt a lot from Sheffield United”, said John Coleman – previously a disciple of 4-4-2/4-4-1-1 – who spoke fondly of his clashes with Chris Wilder, perceived as a pioneer of the overlapping centre-back.

Cameron Burgess undertook that role down the left, with Wimbledon perhaps more focused on stopping Sykes on the other side.

The former Scunthorpe defender combined well at times with Chelsea loanee Tariq Uwakwe; the inverted wing-back showed some nice touches and played decoy at times to create space for Burgess and Joe Pritchard.

The latter, helped perhaps by Coleman’s change of system for 2020-21, dovetailed well with Butcher, who pressed aggressively out of possession as Pritchard dropped in; on the turnover, though, the 24-year-old got close to the strikers and linked play in the final third.

When Stanley could not get the ball into that vicinity on the deck, they were not averse to a diagonal to Colby Bishop – for a technical, 5’11” striker, the former Leamington front-man was surprisingly efficiently in the air when served with accuracy.

Coleman’s side have enough variation to their game to keep opponents guessing, but still with more than enough clarity to their plans to ensure the confusion doesn’t extend to their own players.

Wimbledon, by contrast, played 92 long balls with mixed results; the intensity Glyn Hodges had called for at the break was certainly there in the second half, with Pigott and Longman looking a handful – the latter had chances to claim a brace – but there was a palpable lack of craft behind them.

Of their midfield trio, Jaako Oksanen was tasked with covering for centre-backs while Alex Woodyard and Callum Reilly – operating ahead of the Brentford loanee in a 3-5-2 – were as tenacious as expected but looked far less comfortable once they had the ball.

That has not been a problem for Wimbledon when wing-backs Seddon and Shane McLoughlin are dominating their respective left and right flanks with their energy and vigour, but neither quite hit their ceiling on Saturday – though the former made more inroads in the second half and the latter hit the far post with a fierce drive.

With that near-miss, Wimbledon could claim to have deserved a point, having been on the front foot throughout the second half.

Equally, it’s hard to begrudge the victory to Stanley, who produced some excellent passages of play and defended their lead with the kind of courage and discipline that will please chairman Andy Holt who, like Stanley Ultras, watched at home on iFollow.

With no fans, fake crowd noise, away players heading in opposite directions to home players to change and press areas rightly adopting a near-hospital feel, this is a very destabilizing time for the beautiful game.

Stranger times could yet be around the corner – if the sport can continue at all in non-elite form – because there is no immediate indication as to where vital revenue will come from for lots of clubs.

And yet, amid all football’s the chaos and uncertainty, it’s hard to imagine a time in which Coleman and Stanley are not defying the odds.