Accrington boss John Coleman hailed his side’s resolve and the performance of goalkeeper Toby Savin after their 1-0 win over Fleetwood.

The young shot-stopper produced a string of fine stops before a Michael Nottingham long throw after 73 minutes caused chaos in the Cod Army area and the ball looped up for Dion Charles to head home the winner almost on the goal line.

Stanley are up to seventh in League One on a night where Sean McConville made his first appearance since New Year’s Day after injury.

He said: “Fleetwood took the game to us in the first half and our keeper made some great saves. Toby has played out of his skin.

“They are a good side, they will play worse than that and win, and we had to dig in.

“We switched things out around at half-time, brought on Sean McConville, and I think we were value for our goal when we scored.

“On the balance of play, probably Fleetwood deserved a win or maybe a draw was a fair result but games have gone against us when we haven’t taken our chances, tonight we did.

“We defended a lot better in the second half and we did limit them.

“We are a young side but we have a fantastic attitude, there are no airs and graces and the atmosphere around the place is brilliant.”

Barton’s side have won just two of their opening seven games after reaching the play-offs last season and the Fleetwood boss felt there was a foul in the lead up to the winning goal.

“I said in the dressing room you have got to score when you are on top and the opportunities were falling to the right players,” he said.

“All credit to Accrington, they are a team who keep going and we shouldn’t be undone by a long throw but we felt there was a blatant foul in the box. But it shouldn’t have been down to that kind of decision to decide the contest.

“We are a good football team and we still had chances in the second half especially on the counter-attack but we chose the wrong pass or option at times.”