Accrington player was sent off just two minutes into their League 2 clash on Saturday

Graham Westley praised Accrington Stanley’s performance with 10 men in their 2-2 draw on Saturday.

Stevenage’s opponents had Nicky Hunt sent off after just two minutes for raising his hands to Charlie Lee, but they twice took the lead before Chris Beardsley scored an 88th minute equaliser for Westley’s side.

Speaking afterwards about Hunt’s sending off, and facing 10 men, Westley said: “Nicky has played for me and he’s a good lad. I like him a lot as a man and a person.

“I must admit when I saw it I thought to myself he should walk for that because you can’t put your hands up and push someone in and around the throat and that’s what I saw him do.

“For me it’s a red card. When it happens in the second minute of a game I’d have been frustrated I have to say. But I do think that it was a red card and I think the ref got it spot on.”

Westley added; “Ten men is a myth. We all know that. It takes one player to put the ball in the net.

“We know that teams with 10 can often react by producing steely, determined, gritty performances. If you’re going to go down to 10 then you want to do that at home where the home fans are an 11th man.

“It was an afternoon where they played very well with 10 men. They worked very, very hard. It was a difficult pitch to be constructive on.

“They had two banks of four and made it difficult and they had pace and quality on the counterattack which made them a difficult proposition.”