PAUL Burns scored an injury-time winner to complete a remarkable comeback for Stanley against the UniBond Premier's second placed side Lancaster.

The Giant Axe side had led 2-0 after just 31 minutes and looked on course for a comfortable three points to keep at least some kind of pressure on runaway leaders Burton.

Instead Steve Halford pulled one back, and Stanley scored two goals in a grand finale - Simon Carden firing home in the 86th minute to level and sub Burns took two chances to tuck home his 92nd-minute winner, the second while on the floor.

"He mishit his shot and then got it in at the second attempt," said boss John Coleman, whose side move up to fifth place in the table.

Lancaster were appealing for offside as Carden passed the ball to the waiting Burns and Mark Brennan, both just four yards out, but Coleman said no way.

"Simon said he squared it for Paul who said he was behind their men. So it has to be true!

"Paul seems to have a habit of scoring against Lancaster, he did it a lot when he was at Morecambe and did it last year for us."

But it had looked bleak when former Reds player Brian Welch scored a wonder goal on 21 minutes, striking the ball into the top of the net from 25 yards out.

The Reds then had a great chance for a quick comeback when Paul Mullin forced Paul Sparrow into a mistake. The Dollies defender almost looped the ball over his own keeper but Farrell Kilbane raced back to clear off his line.

The ball then went straight up the other end and Michael Yates played in a great ball from the right wing to the far post and Andy Whittaker got above his opponent to head down and into the net.

"They scored a really good goal for the first, you can't argue with that, and the second was a great striker's goal," said the Reds chief. "It wasn't good from our point of view but if I had scored that I would have been happy with it. It was one of my types of goals when I was playing."

The Reds struggled to make an impact in front of goal but found their feet as the game went on and Andy Banks had to pull off a great save to deny Paul Mullin from about three yards out.

But they finally got one back on the stroke of half time when defender Steve Halford met a Steve Flitcroft free kick to make it 2-1 at the interval.

Stanley looked more threatening after the break, Carden and Flitcroft having a go and Mullin and Lutel James coming close.

But they then had a lucky escape when a Whittaker strike was ruled offside and then the tall striker hit the underside of the crossbar on 80 minutes from Andy Lyons' corner.

It seemed like Lancaster would hold on until sub Robbie Williams played a superb ball into Carden who made himself time and space in the area to strike the ball low into the bottom corner of net.

The 349 crowd were happy with that without Stanley then conjuring up the injury time winner which Burns scooped home.

"You don't often come back from two goals down especially against a quality side like Lancaster and I think they will consider themselves unlucky with the offside goal and we had a bit of luck when they hit the bar," said Coleman. "Those would have made it 3-1 and it would have been tough.

"But we showed a lot of belief and character and it should have been a big confidence boost for the players."

The one downside was that everpresent goalkeeper Jamie Speare picked up a groin injury and reserve keeper Danny Thorpe could be number one at Bishop Auckland on Saturday.

STANLEY are expected to travel to Bradford PA for the first leg of the UniBond League Cup on April 9 with the return leg on April 30 at the Crown Ground, but this has yet to be confirmed.

In the Lancashire FA Marsden Cup final, a provisional date of April 24 has been set for the clash with Barrow to take place at Morecambe FC, although this too has to be confirmed.

ACCRINGTON STANLEY...3 LANCASTER CITY...2