Accrington Stanley boss John Coleman has rued a missed chance from Wrexham loanee Jake Bickerstaff against Crawley Town.
Wrexham endured a difficult weekend, losing 1-0 away at Gillingham.
Add in that promotion rivals Mansfield Town, Crewe Alexandra and Milton Keynes Dons all won and this was a weekend to forget for Phil Parkinson and co.
Accrington Stanley had a difficult weekend too as their lingering play-off hopes took a hit with a 1-0 home defeat to Crawley Town.
Despite 23 shots on goal, Accrington just couldn’t find the net – and a Wrexham loanee may have missed their biggest chance.
John Coleman on Jake Bickerstaff
Accrington produced a golden chance with just about five minutes on the clock with Wrexham loanee Jake Bickerstaff going through on goal.
Crawley goalkeeper Corey Addai was in no man’s land as Accrington launched the ball forward, leaving Bickerstaff in on goal.
Bickerstaff jabbed the ball towards goal but fired straight at Addai, who was able to tip the ball over the bar and avoid going a goal behind.
That save proved crucial as Crawley went on to win – and Accrington boss John Coleman rued Bickerstaff’s chance.
“We’ve wasted a couple of opportunities, we’ve wasted one after five minutes with Jake going clean through,” said Coleman. “That could be the difference. I think, if we score that, I think we go on and win the game quite comfortably, but it wasn’t to be.”
“I think if Jake had that chance again, he wouldn’t have hit it the way he did. He’d control it, because the keeper was in no man’s land and you wouldn’t be lauding their keeper, you’d be absolutely ironing him out for a horrendous mistake because he’s done the hokey cokey; he’s gone back and forth, back and forth and left Jake with a clean one-on-one and he should score,” he added.
Bickerstaff is a product of the Wrexham youth setup having started his career with the club before heading to Liverpool for two years in 2015.
After returning to Wrexham in 2017, Bickerstaff has now managed 24 first-team appearances with three goals and two assists to his name.
Bickerstaff started this season in decent form with two goals in his first four outings, but then played just 17 minutes of league action between the end of August and the end of January.
Wrexham chose to send Bickerstaff on loan to Accrington on deadline day, allowing the 22-year-old to go out and play regularly.
Bickerstaff is yet to find his first goal for Accrington and really needs to show Wrexham that he can still make an impact moving forward.
Wrexham are flush with attacking options with Steven Fletcher, Paul Mullin, Ollie Palmer, Sam Dalby and Jack Marriott all in the mix.
That presents a difficult situation for Bickerstaff and whilst we would love to see him become a star at Wrexham given his long association with the club, we could be approaching crunch time for him at the Racecourse.