Stanley were made to pay for their ‘kamikaze defending’ in the defeat at Blackpool, according to boss John Coleman.

The Reds boss saw his side beaten 3-2 at Bloomfield Road in the Checkatrade Trophy, having already qualified for the knockout stages.

Connor Hall handed the visitors a 17th minute lead as they dominated the early stages, but Coleman was disappointed with the three goals his side shipped as Joe Dodoo scored twice in the first half with Armand Gnanduillet on target in the 67th minute.

Hall added a consolation in injury time from the penalty spot for his and Stanley’s second of the night, but a late rally wasn’t enough to level the scores.

And Coleman said: “I’m disappointed we lost. We started off brightly, scored a great goal and things were looking bright for us.

“They scored a really good goal and then it’s real kamikaze defending from us, two pathetic goals from our point of view.

“The first one there is no danger until our lad leaves it for their centre forward and he’s clean through.

“The second is a scuffed cross from John O’Sullivan which goes straight to their lad totally unmarked in the area and he has time and space to put it in the net.

“We threw the kitchen sink at them in the last 10 minutes, the ‘keeper made an unbelievable save, and we had a couple of chances. The penalty was too little too late.”

Even though Stanley had already qualified, Coleman was still disappointed to taste a rare defeat.

He added: “We have good players and are playing well, but you can’t make the individual errors like we did.

“The first one is a very good finish, but it can be stopped at the halfway line. We let the lad carry the ball and put it in to the box and then we go to sleep.

“It’s something you can iron out, and maybe there was a bit of complacency setting in, I don’t know,

“But I don’t like losing games and the players are in no uncertain times that I don’t like losing games and they shouldn’t.

“So we’re disappointed not to win the game and more disappointed to lose it.”

As expected, Stanley named a much changed line-up as the likes of Conor Ripley, Mark Hughes, Sean McConville and Billy Kee not involved.

But Coleman felt it was the absence of left back Nick Anderton, on loan from Blackpool and unavailable to play, made for an imbalance on the left side of the defence.

Michael Ihiekwe was moved out to the left, with Matty Platt given a rare start at right back.

“We made a couple of chances and we weren’t able to play Nick Anderton so lacked a bit of balance on the left hand side,” Coleman said.

“We made mistakes. Ben (Richards-Everton) and Ross (Sykes) have been superb together in this competition, and the Lancashire Senior Cup, so we had no hesitation in putting them in, and Matty has been very good, but he had one of those nights where things conspire against you.

“I don’t think anyone would be thinking that after 20 minutes we would go 3-1 down in the game.

“We were totally in control.”