‘It’s killing us’: how League One rivals are feeling the pain of losing key man to Portsmouth

The Accrington manager confessed selling Colby Bishop to the Blues is proving a tough blow for his side to take, as they fell to a 2-1 reverse at Forest Green Rovers.

The result makes it seven games without a win for Coleman’s men in all competitions, with just a single league success to date leaving them 19th in the table.

Accrington took the decision to sell Bishop in July, with Pompey fending off interest from Blackpool to bring in the 25-year-old.

The striker responded with five goals in as many games as he made a powerful opening to his Fratton career.

Meanwhile, Accrington have managed nine league goals - with four of them coming in one game in the 4-4 draw with rock-bottom Burton Albion.

Only leaders Ipswich have managed more than Accrington’s 106 shots on goal in their seven league games, with only Shrewsbury and Burton having a lower percentage on target.

Former Pompey trainee Tommy Leigh got his side’s only goal against Forest Green, but Coleman can see his side are missing Bishop’s quality.

He told Accrington’s YouTube channel: ‘We’re not scoring goals.I don’t know how they score two goals.

‘They weren’t in it, well they weren’t until late on when we got a bit disjointed.

‘We were comfortable and in control of the game.

‘We can’t finish at the moment. We’re blunt, we’re snatching at everything and every shot gets blocked.

‘Ten shots in the first half and two on target. That’s the story of our season.

‘We’re paying the price for injuries and it would have been financial madness to keep Colby Bishop in the final year of his contract.

‘But you can’t lose that quality and we haven’t got that quality at the moment - it’s killing us.’