John Doolan feels Accrington got what they deserved from win at Tranmere

Accrington boss John Doolan felt his side got what they deserved as they boosted their push for the play-offs with a hard-earned 1-0 victory at Tranmere despite going down to nine men.

Stanley took the lead shortly after the interval as Isaac Heath delivered an inviting cross and Paddy Madden took advantage of slack marking to head home past Marko Marosi.

The visitors’ night became more challenging just past the hour mark as Luke Butterfield was dismissed for a foul on James Plant.

Accrington continued to threaten and nearly doubled their lead when Heath rattled the bar in stoppage time, while Rovers had a glorious chance to equalise when Charlie Whitaker was denied by Ollie Wright.

Stanley remained resolute despite going down to nine men when Josh Woods was dismissed in added time to claim a crucial three points.

Doolan, who saw his side move to within six points of the play-off places, said: “I’m very pleased with that performance and at the end of the day we deserved everything we got.

“Until the first sending off I thought we bossed the game and I thought everyone played and showed quality going forward and then got the goal.

“I didn’t feel that we were under pressure in the first half. They had a little bit of the ball but then gave it back.

“We imposed our threat in the final third and we didn’t take the chances in the first half and if we had I think it would have been more comfortable.

“The first one isn’t a red card in my opinion, but that’s it. All you can do is focus on your team. You’ve got a job to do and they’ve got a job to do and boy did we do it.

“In terms of togetherness and resilience they were outstanding tonight.

“I don’t want the referees or officials to be the focus tonight, the focus should be on the players on the pitch and they were great and thoroughly deserved the three points.”

Tranmere boss Andy Crosby, whose side have now lost seven of their last eight games, said: ”I was desperately disappointed with the first 45 minutes.

“We looked devoid of any kind of energy or any kind of quality in possession and our first passing moment of the game came after about 15 minutes.

“Mentally we didn’t look physically at it and we wanted to build on the win on Saturday.

“It was a disappointing goal for us to give away for them to go 1-0 up and then they had a man sent off and they then sit in and it’s then up to us to break them down.

“When they went down to 10 men I think we got a little bit rushed around the box when we could have played another pass.

“I think perhaps we could have shown a bit more calmness and composure in the final third against 10 men.

“We set up to go and win the game and we wanted to continue the momentum from the last game and we haven’t done that.”