ACCRINGTON Stanley boss John Coleman declared Saturday’s incredible 3-2 home defeat to Bradford as his worst moment in football.

Coleman’s Stanley side looked on course for a deserved 2-0 win against former Premier League opposition at the Fraser Eagle Stadium but capitulated disastrously as they conceded three goals in the last 10 minutes.

It was a result that saw Stanley, who have taken just one point from their last seven league games, slip another place to 19th in League Two - they would be third from bottom without the points deductions handed out to Rotherham, Bournemouth and Luton.

Coleman last week described Stanley’s 3-0 triumph at Bradford in 2007 as the highlight of his managerial career but Saturday’s result was at the opposite end of the spectrum.

“It’s probably the worst I’ve ever felt in football,” said the long-serving Stanley chief.

“I’m totally and utterly gutted. I’ve never felt this low in my life.

“We’ve lost the ability to win and it’s incredibly frustrating.

“You can point to the fact we were unlucky - and we were amazingly unlucky - but we still should have managed to close out the 2-0 lead with 10 minutes to go.

“We played ever so well and I feel for the players.

“I can’t put my finger on it but you can’t play that well for 80 minutes and then capitulate like we did.

“The best team lost. If anyone says different they’re lying.”

Lifting his devastated players could be a challenge after such a dramatic defeat but Coleman says first he must lift himself.

The boss had been all set to celebrate his 46th birthday yesterday but was quickly on the phone to his wife after the match to cancel his plans.

Speaking after Saturday’s match, he said: “The first person I’ve got to pick up is myself because I’m absolutely deflated.

“It’s my birthday tomorrow and my wife’s booked a table for the night. I’ll have to cancel that, I can’t go out, I can’t face that.

“I’ll go straight to bed and get myself up tomorrow and put a positive spin on it.

“But at this moment in time there are no positives.”

Coleman, who a week earlier had expressed his frustration that an inexperienced referee had sent off Robbie Williams for a professional foul at Barnet, was this time annoyed that official Michael Jones failed to show a red card to Bradford defender Graeme Lee when he brought down Rostyn Griffiths.

Griffiths had looked to be surging clear with Stanley leading 2-0 and the verdict of the Chester referee, who took charge of a Premier League game in August, could have been looked upon as a turning point.

Coleman lamented: “Last week we get a man sent off for that. This we they don’t get a man sent off for that.

“Without a doubt that was a turning point. The lad’s going through on goal, so give him a chance to score or send the lad off.

“They will argue that there might have been a covering man back but I think Rostyn’s momentum has taken him clean through on goal no matter what.

“But at the end of the day we shouldn’t need a refereeing decision to help us win a game.

“There were a couple of strange ones - handball leading to the first goal, offside for the third goal and bad defending for the second goal.

“But I certainly won’t be using that as an excuse. We have to defend better than that.

“For 80 minutes we defended magnificently, then for 10 minutes were like Sunday League rank amateur players and we’ve been punished for it.”

Coleman was pleased that a training ground routine worked when Jimmy Ryan opened the scoring from a corner pulled back to the edge of the area.

Ryan was substituted with the scoreline still at 2-0 and was shocked by events after his withdrawal.

He said: “I can’t believe it. It hasn’t really sunk in yet.

“When I came off I thought the game was won. We defended well, so I thought it was a great win.

“Everyone is gutted and down, but there wasn’t much shouting in the dressing room because the lads have done well and worked hard. The gaffer said that.

“For 82 minutes they haven’t troubled us one bit apart from when they hit the crossbar.

"Apart from that we were comfortable and had better chances than them.

"It was just one of those days again.”