IT was enough to make Accrington Stanley manager John Coleman consider his future.

After working hard to clean up their act and improve their disciplinary record, the Reds chief was frustated to see four of his players pick up bookings for nothing more than inoccuous incidents at Aldershot's Recreation Ground on Saturday.

Paul Mullin was the first to go into the referee's book for 'persistant fouling'. But what referee Cann failed to notice was that central defender Chris Giles had taken his task to man-mark Mullin a little too literally.

Nevertheless, the striker was shown a rare yellow card for trying to shake off Giles.

In first half injury time, Peter Cavanagh was harshly booked for a challenge on Adam Miller seconds after Lee McEvilly had valid appeals for a penalty turned down after breezing past Jon Challinor and Phil Warner inside the box.

Early in the second half, centre half Mike Flynn was cautioned thanks to Aaron McLean's play-acting before McEvilly rounded off the bookings for accidentally catching Ray Warburton with his elbow as he went to win a header.

Coleman fumed: "I'm upset we got four players booked because there wasn't a bad foul in the game.

"We've worked our socks off to improve our disciplinary record but some of the decisions mystified me.

"It doesn't make sense and it's ruining the game of football for me, and if I wasn't full-time I'd have to think long and hard about whether I wanted to carry on with it because it's out of your hands.

"All your preparation can go wrong and you've got no-one to complain to."

But the bookings merely added frustration to an already bland contest.

It's not difficult to see why Aldershot concede few goals at home. Their style certainly isn't one for the purists, and Stanley were guilty of slumping to their level in a scrappy and fractious first half.

The gradient on the pitch certainly didn't help

matters, and the Reds struggled to string good moves together as they attacked up the pitch.

However, a major highlight of their performance was a resolute defensive display, which meant livewire front man McLean was limited to long range chances.

Goalkeeper Carl Ikeme was handed a debut after arriving on a month's loan from Wolverhampton Wanderers and got his first taste of action when McLean struck a low right foot shot, but the stopper got down to gather it.

Ikeme then made a brave save at the feet of McLean, and suffered a kick in the ribs for his efforts.

Stanley's got into a habit of giving the ball away cheaply, which didn't help their cause, and McLean looked to take advantage of a loose ball but lashed his shot wide.

The Reds eventually got to grips with the game, with the returning Andy Procter working effectively in midfield, while Mullin was unlucky to see his follow-up shot blocked on the line after McEvilly's shot was fumbled by goalkeeper Nikki Bull.

Coleman's men strung more fluent moves together as they attacked down the slope in the second half, and Steve Jagielka was unlucky to see his effort curl just wide after Ian Craney chested the ball down.

There were a couple of scares as substitute Nick Crittenden was denied a goalbound effort by a timely block, then Cavanagh got his body in the way of McLean's shot just as the referee blew for a foul on Ikeme.

Jonathan Smith went on to keep out another McLean drive, Stanley broke and Jagielka crossed for Mullin but Bull punched the ball clear off his head.

Stanley continued to keep high flying Aldershot at arm's length with solid defending, most notably Smith's sliding challenge on Adam Miller.

Mullin had a header drop agonisingly wide nine minutes from time and Smith also went close.

But in the end, after Miller struck the base of the post in the closing stages, Coleman was satisfied with a point.

"We battled well and defended superbly, and it was probably a fair result in the end," he said.

"We've taken on two of the top sides in Hereford and Aldershot and limited them to not many chances."