ACCRINGTON Stanley manager John Coleman has launched a staunch defence of his decision to replace Jimmy Ryan with Andy Procter during the defeat to Bradford.

Ryan started on the right flank and opened the scoring but, with Stanley leading 2-0 with 11 minutes to go, Coleman opted to bring on Procter - a central midfielder by trade - in place of the Irish under 21 international.

Coleman felt Ryan was tiring and may have been concerned that Bradford had switched striker Michael Boulding to the left flank.

But the substitution failed to negate that threat as the Bantams scored three times in the last 11 minutes to claim a dramatic victory.

“Much was made of Jimmy Ryan coming off,” said Coleman.

“Jimmy played really well but he was tiring and in the time before he came off he gave the ball away three or four times cheaply.

“He put a lot of work in and he’s a good player. I don’t think the substitution made any difference to us winning the game.

“The way we played, we would have conceded the goals whoever was playing right side of midfield. I think it was unfair on Andy Procter.

“But we have to maybe learn that when we do make changes we have to adapt to them a bit quicker than what we do.

“People always look for blame. We live in a world of blame culture now and if something goes wrong they have to find the reason for it.

“They’re not always the correct reasons. The reason we lost the game on Saturday was because we lost our men at key times in and around the box.

“Maybe after the shellshock of conceding the second goal we got disorganised for the third goal.

“At times when we have a setback we have to learn to be more resilient and batten down the hatches a bit quicker.”